


When the world needs some saving

by Sharkbit11



Series: The hunted fireteam [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-10-18 12:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 23,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17580632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharkbit11/pseuds/Sharkbit11
Summary: Austin wakes up in a strange new world with no idea what his past is. He defies vanguard orders and sets out to find it, but little does he know a fireteam finding his objective turns his world upside down as he tries to survive being hunted.





	1. A Guardian rises

Shock grenades. Why did it have to be shock grenades? I was being chased by fallen, four armed humanoids that are surprisingly fast. They are also very perceptive with those 4 eyes. They used to be decided into houses each one fighting with the other for rescorces and territory. But now they are one house because some unnamed guardian has been killing their leadership (Not that I'm ungrateful. It's just made them even more desperate and aggressive) as I run through the jungles of old America with a pack of the scavengers at my back I'm searching. Not with my eye I'm just sort of feeling around. I don't know what for but I'll know it when I find it. A shock grenade explodes right near me and blows me to an opening. "Really?" I quip "you had to bring me into the open?" I was now in the square of some large city I didn't have time to think of the name to because I saw the shot of a sniper charging. So I quickly dodge the bolt of pure arc energy and dash off into the city. Now that I'm in it the city has alot of opportunities to hide but none the fallen can't get into. I quickly look around and decide on a not-complety-collapsed building. As I make my way through the fading yellow arches that had to be hanging above It at some point I duck down as a shrapnel launcher bolt flies over my head. "A captain! I'm that important?" I exclaim to myself as I duck into a closer in the back of the building. As I calm down from the chase I quickly review the order I need when I find what I'm searching for. And then. I feel it. A small tugging at my being. Telling me to look around again. And I see bones! Yes! I almost went over there at that moment but I heard the fallen drop in to the building I was in as I look at the bones I say "almost there. Just wait a few more moments." I see the claw of the fallen captain grab the edge of the door to the closet as he peers in. I close my eye, the light it gives off would give me away. If only I was any color other than white! The captain peers in and scans the room, utters a harsh language to his posse, then takes one more look. I could feel him looking at me with those four eyes searching for any ounce of life. Then he leaves. If I had breath I would have been holding it. I wait for the sound of their feet to fade away, and only then do I dare move. "Why did I come here in the first place?" I muse quietly to myself. And then I felt the tugging again. And I quickly fly over to the skeleton on the floor.  
"Well." I decide "it wasn't a wasted trip, anyway" and my shell expands. Eight points of metal swirling around a ball of blue light and a core that is my eye and head in the middle. I scan the bones saying out loud the order I will need to recite no more. "Bones, veins, nerves, organs, muscle, skin, and finally a flash of light. Don't worry guardian, your ghost is here!" I clench my shell to my core and after a moment when I can't contain the power building up, I let it out and wash over the newly resurrected guardian.


	2. Storms and Small Friends

The guardian gasped then yelped with pain as he moved his unfathomably stiff muscles and bones. When the initial shock of the pain faded he slowly moved and flexed his limbs and body while staring up at the ceiling, and the strange blue glow it seemed to give off. When his bones were no longer creaking he sat up and finally got a look at his surroundings. He was in a strangely familiar small room with fallen shelves and tools and other debris restricting It even further he then noticed the open door and a hovering, drone? Yes, that had to be what it was. Partially out of the door. It looked like it was watching out for something. It had a spherical center covered with 2 groups of 4 points, the back part spinning around every once In a while. The guardian didn't feel comfortable standing so he shifted to his knees and reached out towards the drone in the doorway. Suddenly the drone spun to face him showing his one glowing blue eye. The movement was enough to startle the guardian enough that he jumped backwards and scooted away from the drone, groaning as he stretched more than he was used to. "Finally. I've been waiting for you to loosen up enough to check you over." The guardian tried to speak but his throat was so dry that he entered a violent coughing fit. When it subsided he finaly could ask "where am I?" Before stopping because of pain.  
"Oh yeah." The ghost mumbled "the questions." After a short pause the ghost said "okay. I know you have questions but they will have to wait, the important things to know are that I'm a ghost, actually your ghost now, you are a guardian, and I'm gonna give you a check-up right now because I have been waiting a long time for this and I won't have you die from a overlooked part of the revival process." The drone, now identified as "Ghost", glew over to the guardian who was visibly nervous as this strange thing moved to him. Ghost, noticing this said "don't worry it won't hurt" and with that four beams of light emerged from his core and circled around his feet and slowly moved up. While Ghost wasn't lying, he certainly didn't tell the guardian about the itching tingle that the beams of light did make him feel. As he resisted the urge to scratch he took notice of what he was wearing. He had on only what he could describe as metal plating for his chest and stomach and flowing robes coming off it covering his metal plated boots. His arms were equally protected as his arms, back of his hands, and between the first two knuckles on his fingers were covered in some sort of protective layer. Be it metal or plastic. All parts where he moved had gaps making the cloths flexible but strong. The beam coming from ghost had reached the top of his neck and he found the pain in his throat dying away. As the beam fully engulfed his head, Ghost stopped and the beam vanished. "There." Said the little flying being "you can talk now., And stand although you may be a bit dizzy." To test out his voice the guardian said "you didn't warn me about the itching." "Sorry" ghost apologised. "Didn't think about that." The guardian stood, and as expected was hit with a massive wave of dizziness. As he leaned against the wall Ghost flew to the open door once more. "I think it's clear. We have to go" "go where?" The guardian asked as he pushed himself off the wall. As Ghost flew back to him he said "away from here. Now since we are both white we are most likely gonna get spotted when that happens," a helmet appeared on the guardians head. And he only knew because a HUD was displayed showing diffrent symbols and bard he had no idea of the meaning to, and the weight on his head. Ghost continued "keep running, you don't have any defense but your armor. And me" that last part was said with a hint of cockiness. After one more check at the door ghost nervously said "okay I haven't done this before so hold still." And with that ghost flew towards the guardians head. But before coliding with it he dissapeared with a small flash of light. The guardian looked around confused until Ghost's voice piped up from within his head "it's okay I'm still here just get out of this building and turn left. That should give us enough cover without concealing the fallen." The guardian was confused but he reserved to ask ghost about this fallen later. As he exited the closet he heard the distant clap of thunder and the patter of rain outside. "I need some awnsers, ghost" the guardian said before the voice in his head awnsered with "will you settle for awnsers on the move?" The guardian rolled his eyes and smiled before ducking under some yellow arches and sprinting out into the rain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Here it is. Chapter 2, imma try to keep a regular update scedule of every other say So keep an eye out for that....
> 
> Cya later  
> -sharkbit


	3. Weapons of knowlege, light, and bullets

The guardian moved fast. As he moved he learned. He learned about an entity called the Traveller, and of the guardians, and of how he was dead before ghost brought him back to life to defend the Traveller. Ghost didn't know everything but he knew most of what was important like how the guardians armor worked. The metal and plastic was to keep the armor light but strong and the robes were to protect his legs by deflecting some of the energy of a bullet before it hit. The guardian would ask questions and try to get a full understanding of the subject before moving on to the next topic. He also saw his first fallen when ghost said from his helmet "get in the brush, now! Fallen at 2 o clock!" The guardian hit the deck and rolled under a bush. After a few seconds he saw it. A skinny humanoid figure with 4 arms and 4 eyes all keeping vigilant watch for him. After the patrol passed the guardian continued. They ran all day and made camp in a clearing. As the sun neared its hiest peak they were sitting on the grass and talked. "So I have something for you" ghost said after a moment of silence. "Oh?" "Hold out your hand." Ghost instructed and when the guardian complied materialised a black ring into his hand. "I found that on your body. I thought you might want it." The guardian looked at the ring. It was black with letters and symbols on it. On the top was a gem cut in half by letters spelling 'Austin' "Austin. Could that be my name?" The guardian asked, fascinated by the ring. "As far as we know...." Ghost trailed off. "Well" said the newly named Austin, "of its on my body I guess..." as he trailed off he noticed movement on the tracker on his HUD as he quickly looked to his left and got up he heard a single shot, felt his hair stand on end and then darkness.

A single shot! That's all it took! My guardian fell. I quickly opened and absorbed his escaping light and charged it up with my own. I could see the fallen approaching. "Come on! Faster!" I mumbled to myself. As the fallen reached out to grab my shell saying something I didn't want to translate I clenched my shell and sent the light back into Austin repairing his body and restoring his breath. "Guardian!" I yelled as the fallen snatched me from the air.

A gasp. And then sound. Then feeling. "Guardian!" He heard his ghost yell. That got him up. Austin stood with such speed the fallen holding his ghost stopped, looked around and put a gun to ghosts shell. "Put him down!" Austin yelled. The fallen stepped backwards. And Austin lunged. His brain told him to ball up his fist and punch the fallen holding ghost, but instinct, or some sort of muscle memory, told his hand to open with his palm facing the vandal holding his friend. Something shot out of his palm and hit the vandal crushing it's chest and sending it flying backwards throwing ghost into the air. Austin traversed the distance between him and his disoriented ghost seemingly instantly. He grabbed ghost and held him to his chest as he felt a chill flow from his chest into his body, making it move, putting his right hand in a throwing position with his left leg raised and his right bent at the knee. He then felt the chill rush into his hand poised to throw with such speed he could not help but to yell as he threw the chill away from his body and fell to the earth with ghost in hand. As he landed hard on his back he heard a giant explosion and fallen screaming. As he looked he saw fallen being desinegrated to purple ashes and big purple balls chasing fallen who had managed to escape doing the same to them when they catch their prey. One fallen noticed that it couldn't escape and turned and yelled something at Austin before being caught in the explosion of one of the purple predators. All was quiet for a few seconds before Austin felt ghost squirming in his grasp and let him go. "A voidwalker!" Ghost exclaimed sounding like he was out of breath. "I never thought. I mean." Ghost stopped as he noticed his guardian not moving. He opened his shell and when he didn't find anything in terms of lost light he swept Austin with a healing beam. "I'm okay." Austin assured as he sat up and eventually got to his feet he asked "what was that" ghost cheerfully awnsered "that was the light!" Austin slightly unsettled asked "that was the light you were telling me about? It just annialated a whole fallen squad!" Ghost seeing that Austin was disturbed said " that's just your 'super ability as it's called. When you caught me you also blinked." Seeing that Austin was confused (As he had taken off his helmet) ghost added "it's a short range teleport that has alot of uses" Austin nodded and went to the ashes of the final vandal. "What did this one say?" Ghost was quiet for a few seconds but his back half was spinning meaning that he was thinking. "There is no direct translation but the best I can do is he called you a 'queenbreaker'" austin picked up the fallen's gun saying "queenbreaker" testing the word like a new set of clothes. "Queenbreaker. I kinda like it." He then asked ghost "what is this gun?" Ghost piped up "a wire rifle the vandal presses thise buttons in the grip and it charges, collecting arc energy at the front of the barrel. Then when the vandal pulls the trigger a bolt, kinda like a crossbow bolt, gets shot out of the gun carrying with it the arc energy." Austin looked at the gun and said. "How easy is it to modify for a human?" Ghost bobbed up and down in one spot as he realised what his guardian was implying. "Not hard I can help if you need." Austin thanked ghost and headed back to their destroyed camp. As night fell, the ghost gave light to see, and the guardian worked on his new gun. It was deep into the night when he was done. "So" ghost asked his charge "it's obviously exotic rarity, what do you wanna name it?" Austin thought, then smiled "The queenbreaker's bow" he declared. Ghost thought, then gave his version of a smile as well. "It fits" the guardian put the new gun on the ground and lied down "tomorrow" he said "your gonna have to teach me what rarities mean" and with that the guardian fell asleep. Ghost didnt however instead he just flew up. Up and up until he could see farther than the guardian can. Framed by the moon he looked until he found something of use: a radio dish. One with a control room. If they could just get there they could radio the city. Or perhaps, If it was from the golden age, find a ship. Either way that's where they needed to go. Ghost stopped flying, and fell. Before he hit the ground he started flying again. First down, and then he pulled up. Bleeding his momentum by flying a couple of laps around the small camp. Then he settled down next to the guardian. Keeping watch from whatever would take Austin from him. He chuckled to himself "I need a name too" all through the night he would think of names. None fit. But with his guardian by his side and he at his, he wasn't worried. All great guardians name their ghosts. And this ghost, well he felt he found the greatest of them all.


	4. The crash of thunder

Austin woke to see his ghost open and pulsing with light every couple of seconds. "What are you doing?" He asked. Ghost, without looking at him replied "I found a communications center to the north. If nothing else we may find a ship or could contact the city from there. I'm finding the best route. There, it's on your HUD." Austin nodded and picked up his helmet and put it on. He looked around until he found the marker ghost was feeding into his helmet. He picked up his gun and tested it. Pulling the trigger until he felt a resistance pushing against it. The gun charged, making a small ball of arc energy at the front of the barrel until he let off the trigger, letting the energy fade away. "It works." He said, smiling under his helmet. After ghost dissipated, fused with his guardian's armor, and a final check of the radar, they were off. As they traveled Austin experimented with his light. He found he always felt the chill of the void (as ghost told him later it was called) and if he manipulated it in diffrent ways it resulted in diffrent outcomes. He would extent the light past his arm to a point and pulled on the resulting invisible trail of void energy, and he blinked. His vision flashed white and he was at the spot he extended the light to. He kept doing it. Finding new ways to blink to possibly throw off attackers. He also found he could manipulate distant objects by anchoring the light to it and his hands. He pulled up a sapling like this and brought it hovering over his hand. "Wow" Austin breathed. It felt like the sapling was in his hand despite the input from his eyes. 

They had traveled for a time before ghost said "wait." Austin took his gun from his back and took a knee watching for whatever ghost had. Then he heard an explosion and turned to find the scource. Ghost appeared and opened playing from his core a message that Austin could hear "Mayday! Mayday! This is guardian ship number 18562 Sierra nova hit and going down!" There was an audible explosion on the feed and static before ghost closed. There was a sound above Austin and when he looked he saw a ship. A big one on fire and spiraling down to the earth. Just after it fell below the treeline they heard an explosion and saw a cloud of billowing smoke rising up from the crash site. "How far is that?" Austin asked his friend that was already open and pulsing. "About a mile off from our current path." Ghost said after a brief pause. "Lets go help." Austin said. After a moment of thinking on ghosts part he vanished saying "on your HUD." Austin saw the marker move to under the cloud of smoke and he set off. As they got closer Austin noticed the trees grew more burnt and twisted. "Do you think that guardian is okay?" He asked his companion. "Mist likley." Replied ghost "in the event of a crash the ghost is supposed to disappear to avoid any shrapnel or debris." When they got there the ship had landed in a clearing. Lots of debris and cover for any fallen so Austin blinked up to the top of a tree and took out his gun, charging it just in case any unwanted guests were stalking around. He put the scope up to his eye and scanned the crash site. Be saw fires everywhere and bits of trees scattered about. But he saw nothing out of the ordinary until he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and swivwled to put his scope on it. He saw a small black object flying around the ship, occasionally scanning it. "Is that a ghost" he asked his ghost. "Looks like it." He replied. 

Austin was about to let the charge go on his rifle when gunfire racked the clearing, spraying bark at his face where the shooter had hit his perch. Austin dropped to the ground and rolled to soften his fall. He sprinted to the nearest piece of debris between him and his unknown assailent. He slid behind the wall just as another burst of gunfire hit his cover. He charged his rifle and peeked over his makeshift shield. Austin saw movement and pulled the trigger on his rifle all the way back. The rifle bucked in his hand with a flat humming sound. He saw the blue trail of the shot bounce off a wall his new enemy was using for their cover. He ducked back down and said "ghost!" Before blinking behind another piece of debris in such a way that his enemy couldn't see it happen. "Fully automatic weapon. I would suggest not getting close to them." "You don't say! I was gonna walk up to them and stab them!" Austin retorted back, sarcasticly he watched as a blue object was launched from where his enemy was and landed with an explosion where his last piece of cover was. Austin charged his gun again and fired another 2 shots at where the grenade came from. Another burst of gunfire rocked his cover punching holes in it. He got up and ran for a dense cluster of trees. As he neared the trees another burst of gunfire. One bullet got him in the side and another the leg. Blood sprayed forth from the wounds and Austin fell. "Gotcha!" Ghost said and he felt another power not like the chill he had been using flow into the wounds. And he felt them start itching and watched as the holes stoped bleeding and fill in. As soon as his armor was repaired he rolled over on his stomach and fired again. Another spray of bullets rocked his position. And it stopped. Austin was about to get up for another piece of cover when he saw a blue flash and a blue object much bigger than the grenade thrown at him with smoke coming off the back go up from his enemy's position and fly towards them. He heard ghost scream in his ear "Thundercrash! Move!" And that's all it took for him to snap out of his fascination and Sprint to the side he tried to blink when the object landed. He felt the ground fall out from under him and an electricity claw at his back, before a shockwave slammed into him and he flew forward. Tumbling through the trees and hitting many. When he stopped he tried to lift himself up, but his body gave out and he once again fell into darkness.

It didn't make sense. A thundercrash wiped out my guardian. I opened to capture his escaped light and went about fixing his body's wounds before I revived him. I heard something crashing through the trees and turned to look at it. A Guardian walked through the underbrush with their ghost in tow. It was a titan. Massive build with even bigger armor. When they saw me they took off their helmet to reveal a female exo. She crouched down to eye level with me and said in a young voice. "Hello, little light! Did that fallen snipe your guardian? He was gonna take out my ghost but I think I got him." I was confused for a second but then realisation flashed over me. "No. You obliterated him with your thundercrash." The titan looked confused for a second until she saw the body of austin, with the queenbreakers bow next to him. She dropped her head and said in a slightly embarrassed tone "oh. Oops. Well revive him, I wanna give my apologies in person." And with that I let a smile creep into my eye display and clenched my shell sending a blast of light back into Austin.


	5. The chill of void

Austin's first thought into the darkness of his ruessurecting body was 'in never gonna get used to dying, am I?' Then the memories of just before his death came and the adrenaline came pouring back into him. When he finally gained full counciousness he blinked backwards onto a thick tree branch. After fighting the virtigo resulting from the quick movement and altitude gain, he reached out with the light and pulled his queenbreaker from the ground and towards his hand. Before it got there, however a giant armored hand reached out and grabbed the gun from the air. Only then did he realize the giant figure standing underneath him. They had chest armor made from solid steel. Boots that had the same profile all the way up their legs with a piece that kitted out to protect the knees that didnt have any armor. Their arms were covered by layers of plasteel, the metal worked it's way up their arms to culminate in massive puldrons covering their head from any attack from the sides. Then there was their face. It was metal! It took Austin a second glance to find that they didn't have a helmet on. The person, If he could call it that, was red with lines of blue going front to back. With two horns coming out of its forehead. When it spoke a female voice came out and her mouth glowed with an orange light. "Why do you have a fallen weapon warlock?" Her voice was firm, but not accusing. It sounded like she really wanted to know. At that moment ghost flew out from behind the giant woman. "Its okay, Austin. It was just a misunderstanding." That caught austin off guard and he exploded at ghost. "A misunderstanding? She killed me! If it wasn't for you I would be dead! Dead! And not the death you see happen, ghost! Like truly permanently dead!" Ghost sunk down in the air a little bit and was going to talk before the massive figure spoke again with a tone that sounded like a mother to a scared child. "He's right. We are not your enemy, warlock. Niko has been telling me I need to check my targets before I engage them." She looked at the rifle. "If I took an extra second I would have seen that this wasn't an ordinary wire rifle charge. But all i saw was a fallen sniper aiming at Niko, and i attacked. If you want to be mad at anyone be mad at me." That speech calmed austin down some and he sat on the branch with his feet dangilling off the edge. "Sorry." Austin said "I keep forgetting that this death is now a casual thing, isn't it?" The person looked at Austin "I am Sarah-4. And I assume that from what your ghost said, that you are austin." She tossed the queenbreaker to Austin, who caught it and placed it on his lap. "Sarah, huh?" Said Austin's ghost who was flying next to her. "That's an abnormally normal name for an exo." Austin was about to chide ghost about being rude to the robot that could crush him in seconds, but yo his surprise she let out a rolling and holly laugh that forced the tension in the air to leave and Austin to smile. "That it Is! Come, let's go to my ship. It's less open in there. And with that ghost disappeared and Austin blinked to the ground. He followed Sarah to the crashed ship and through a pile of debris in the back to a small, but spacious room. "Welcome to the Eon Raptor!" She exclaimed with arms outstretched. "Make yourself at home!" We have luxury all natural beds!" She said pointing to a hole in the ground where grass was peeking through. "Niko! Come out, we have guests!" She proceeded to call. After a few seconds a black ghost with a purple eye composed of purple dots making the diamond of the ghosts eye came out from a corner mumbling to itself "oh!" It exclaimed in a female voice as it beheld the guardian standing in the room. "I didn't think you were serious. Is this the one you thundercrashed?" Sarah rubbed her neck as she replied "yes, it is." The warlock, named Austin, has a fallen rifle that he modified." The ghost, identified Niko, rotated in the air like she was shaking her head and flew in front of austin. "Nice to meet you!" She said and before Austin could reply she swept Austin with a beam if blur light. Austin gasped as he felt the chill in his chest burst forth and fill his body as well as feel like it was getting pulled out of him. He fell to the ground, gasping. He faintly heard a distorted Sarah ask "What are you doing?" And when the seemingly satisfied niko awnsered "proofreading his first revival" she dissapeared and the chill in Austin's body pulled and pushed his body off the ground and into a ball. Then he blinked involentarrilly and ripped his arms and legs out of the position they were in so that his arms were out to his sides and his legs were out and slightly bent. When the void energy left his sight he found himself covered in void light and feeling like he was invincible. He was also floating a couple inches off the ground in the remains of Sarah's ship that had blown apart from the inside. He looked around for Sarah. But instead he found niko floating open for a few seconds when she clenched and a wave of light poured out of her causing Sarah to gasp and bolt up. When she beheld the floating guardian she breathed "nova warp? But they died out eons ago!"


	6. Transmittion comission

"Where is your ghost? I need a word with him." Niko said when she had done her duty reviving Sarah. Ghost materialised above austin's left shoulder and the two ghosts flew out of the now obliterated ship and out of view. Austin was looking at himself, covered in the squirming purple of the void, and testing what he could do in this form. He tried to release another blast from his hand but it didn't work. He found that blinking was now effortless, he thought 'blink' and he blinked where he was looking a few feet. As he did this, Sarah was staring at him like she was trying to figure out a puzzle that was particularly challenging. Until she finally said, "try to pull the light back into yourself. You don't want to spend too much of it." Austin took her advice to heart and located the chill that was now inside every nook and cranny of his body, and slowly tried to contain it back within his chest. Once the last but of void light was contained the purple glow vanished and he fell the few inches to the ground. Sarah was about to say something when the ghosts came back. A quick glance between niko and her guardian and Sarah's eyes went wide. "Two days?" She asked, then smiled. "Didn't you say there was a radio dish near here?" Ghost advised her "yes. About four klicks southwest." Sarah got up. "Hah! Four klicks! If the sparrow survived..." she went into a still intact piece of the ship and pulled out a vehicle. A slim thing with 2 prongs on the front. Austin walked around the hovering thing. He saw the seat was large enough to fit them both. He saw a HUD in front of the seat, showing fuel, speed, and thruster heat. Sarah swung her massive greaves around the sparrow hooking each one on rotating foot holds. "Get on!" She called and Austin did. The ghosts disappeared and Sarah hit the gas. The sparrow shot forward, making Austin grab on tight around Sarah's waist. If he didn't have a helmet on the wind would have taken his breath away. Sarah navigated through the trees of the forest with expert precision. Dodging trees and the occasional fallen. When they got within one klick of the dish, which ghost advised Austin of when he said "scan complete. There arnt any fallen in the control room but they will come running when the dish activates." "Rodger." Sarah awnsered as she pulled the sparrow onto a broken road leading up to the dish. Once they got there Sarah pulled the sparrow to a stop and pulled her rifle from her back. Austin did the same with his queenbreaker, and they went inside. It was dark, so dark the ghosts had to come out and take the position of flashlights. When they had walked for a bit, always keeping their weapons raised, ready for the tiniest hint of danger. Niko said "stop. There should be a terminal around here I can use to jack the dish and send a message." Ghost found it first when he flew off Austin's shoulder and towards the terminal. Niko followed, leaving the guardians in darkness. A blue flash lit up the room for a single second then two more. The pattern continued as Austin looked at niko and ghost. Niko was sending a blue beam, much more concentrated than anything he has seen ghost do, at the console and it lit up. A groan of the dish out side turning towards its target. And a screech of the scavengers realising someone was messing with their haul. Ghost vanished and Sarah took 2 rapid bursts from her rifle. That's all Austin needed. He charged his rifle and blinked up to high ground. Taking in the information of where the fallen were from the bursts of light from niko and Sarah. One shot, one down. Another shot, another down. Three more and a captain fell leaving his troops without directions. Austin saw the wave of fallen pour in and realised they couldn't take them all on their own. Or maybe, they could. He shouted to Sarah and jumped down off his perch. He grabbed the chill of his light and directed it through his whole body, covering it in void light. Sarah obviously saw this as electricity was arcing around her. Austin blinked, Sarah jumped with her arms outstretched. Austin came back into existence like a light being switched on, Sarah came back down with the weight of the sky with her. They both released shockwaves. Blink. Blink. Release. Another group of fallen disintegrated. Blink. Blink. Blink.he got away from their comrades looking for revenge. He glanced at Sarah. Her arc infused body slammed into a fallen shoulder first. She rolled over the desintegrating corpse and snakes another fallen with what was left. She killed up and brought her fists down to strike the ground. An arc shockwave took out another group. Blink. Blink. Release. Blink. Blink. Blink. He fought with the void and lost track of the fallen he killed it was all a blur until. It was quiet. All he heard was the breathing of him and Sarah. He contained the light around him and dropped to the floor. Sarah likewise diffused the energy around her. They walked over to niko who, Austin took a second to notice, was talking into the console. A statiky voice crackled back. A woman's voice, wise, but also caring, "I'm sending a ship for extraction good work, guardian sarah." the transmittion cut out. "Well?" Sarah asked Niko' s reply was one of relief "ikora is sending someone to get us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now we get into the established characters......and I'm kinda excited. Imma try to keep them feeling like themselves, while also characterizing them. So....without further ado! Your gonna have to wait another day, sorry!
> 
> cya later  
> -sharkbit


	7. The naming of friends.

Austin and Sarah listened to the message. I could tell that Austin was relieved to be going somewhere safe, but also nervous too. I materialised as the two guardians went to go sit against the wall. After a quick survey of the perimeter, I went to niko to see if there was anything I could help her with. She was still working with the console so I asked "need any help?" And as to be expected, she denied the offer without looking up from the console. "What are you doing?" I asked, genuinely curious. "This dish has been collecting data from old Russia since it was abandoned. I'm sifting through all the information to see what we could use at the city." "Its orientated towards russia?" I asked. "It was. Since I've turned it towards the city I have shut down its broadcasting capabilities." I was gonna ask more but niko turned to me abruptly. "Are you gonna bother me all day, or are you gonna check on your guardian?" She didn't say it as a threat. It was like she was warning me of something. So with that, I turned towards Austin and floated over to him. He was tired. Any ghost could tell. I swept him with a beam of light, restoring his strength and fixing any wounds. He looked at me for a couple seconds and then stared out the window. It's at times like these I wish we were bonded enough to hear each other's thoughts. But as of now, I'll have to wait.

The ship came a couple hours later. A Hunter by the name of nathan was flying. The ride to the city was mostly quiet, only a few questions from Austin here and there. When the city got into view, everyone was ready to land. The transmit caught Austin off guard, he fell to his knees and complained of a headache. "A transmit will do that the first couple of times" said a voice coming from above us. Austin looked up to reveal ikora Rey with her hand outstretched. Austin took it and I materialised out of his "backpack" Austin took the city in, Ikora let him have his moment of wonder. After a few seconds she said "since you are new I will give you the tour." She turned to Sarah, who hadn't moved much since she landed "go report to Zavala, he has been talking about you." Sarah's shoulders slumped and she departed with a quick "yes ma'am" first, ikora introduced herself as the warlock vanguard and mentor. She then took Austin and me on the tour of the little space on the wall the guardians called home. She began with the plaza pointing out the criptarch and postmaster. Then she ushered us to the hangar where Amanda holiday was present, working on a sparrow. And finally to the dorms, or barracks, diffrent guardians have diffrent names for them. Where she quickly spoke to a human, and motioned towards a room. "If you need anything, yell. Otherwise, you have the rest of the day to yourself. At noon tomorrow you will report to me and we can begin your training. Welcome home, guardian." And she left with a turn and flurry of her robes.

"Why does her robes look so much better?" Austin fake-complained, which forced a chuckle out of me. We went into our room. It wasn't much to look at. Just a bed, dresser, side table, and TV in it, but it wasn't claustrophobic. I went to the window looking out at the traveler and thought. Long and hard I thought, I could hear Austin exploring his new home behind me. My mind made up I turned to see Austin opining the drawers on his dresser and I smiled saying "Austin, I've been thinking." Austin replied "you do alot of that." "I need an name" I continued. Austin looked surprised by this statement. "Do you have one in mind?" He asked "No, but I know where we can find some." I pulled up a database of names on a hologram in front of austin. "You never cease to amaze." He said with a smile after a quick investigation of the floating list. We spent the next few hours combing through names. Some seemed to fit, others didn't, but none of them felt right. It wasn't until when the sun had fallen, and the city was lit up with light bulbs that I finally found one. "How about casper?" "Casper?" Austin asked. He said it a few more times testing it out. "I like casper. Where's it from." "From a old earth show called..." I stopped at the name, feeling foolish. "Well?" Austin pressed "casper: the friendly ghost." I said meekly. Austin laughed a big laugh. If I could blush I would have. A pang of joy shot through me. Not my joy, this felt diffrent, brighter, clearer. "Its perfect" Austin said. With a smile I sent the name to consoles. I was now Casper. Ghost #11523030 didn't exist anymore. Austin got on his bed and lied down. "Ghost" he smiled realising his mistake "I mean, casper. What do you think the training will be like tommorrow?"


	8. Everyone lost someone

Austin woke up to the doorbell ringing. He sat up on his bed groggily, and looked around for the newly named Casper. He smiled to himself as he remembered the name. He found Casper on the dresser, asleep by the looks of it. His eye was off but he was still upright every once in a while bobbing up and down slowly until he landed on the dresser again. Austin got up and walked over to casper. He gently stroked Casper's shell until his eye flickered to life and he looked around the room, settling his case on Austin. The bottom part of his eye vanished, indicating a smile. "Wake up sleepyhead" Austin said quietly. The doorbell rand again, Austin opened the door to reveal Sarah standing in the doorframe, massive shoulder pads almost touching the walls. "Sarah! what a suprise." Casper said, now gloating over Austin's shoulder. Sarah awnsered in a calm tone "yeah. I figured you don't know where ikora would be so I came to take you." Austin smiled and replied "ikora requested us at noon. Is it that late already?" Niko appeared over Sarah's shoulder and in a amused tone said "Its almost 11:30. Don't you have an alarm clock in your room?" The look Austin gave said everything "don't worry we'll gett you one on the way back tonight." Sarah reassured "shall we go?" They walked through the tower together. Austin asking more questions than the day before as he was more rested. As they passed the plaza Austin noticed massive gun emplacements. "Have those ever acctually been fired?" Austin asked. All the faces around him darkened "yes." Sarah said with a hint of anger "once very recently, so you'd be better off not asking that question again." After a short pause she very quietly added "everyone lost someone" by the time they got to ikora everyone's mood had improved. "Ah, Austin there you are. I was beginning to think you wouldn't show" "sorry" Austin replied "I overslept a bit" ikora chuckled quietly then said "ghost, you will be going with ophedious, to learn a few things you haven't already learned yourself." A ghost appeared beside ikora and flew above her, waiting for Casper to join him. "Actually." Austin told his warlock mentor "we picked out a name for him last night." Ikora waited for a second then said "Well? What is it?" Casper looked up at Austin. "Casper" Austin said matter-of-factly. A small smile tugged at ikora's lips and they both knew that the irony of the name was not lost on her. "Well, Casper. Have a good time" ikora said before the two ghosts flew up and out of sight. The warlocks watched them go, after a while ikora turned and beckoned Austin to follow her. While they walked they talked "have you used any of your abilities?" Ikora asked "yes I have. It was what I can only describe as a chill that took over my movements." Ikora took a second to respond "good. You are a voidwalker, like myself. The void is a powerful tool, but it does not discriminate on who it feeds on. What exactly did you use?" Austin avoided a group of pedestrians before he returned to ikora's side and said "I caved a fallen's chest in with something. I went to hit him and my palm opened. Then he went shooting backwards with a crushed chest. Then I destroyed a whole fallen squad with some sort of explosion. And finally, Casper informed me that I blinked?" Austin decided not to tell ikora about what Sarah called a 'nova warp', the look on her face said he should talk with her before telling ikora. Ikora was silent throughout this exchange. Then she stopped at a tall wall. "Your first lesson." She said with a tone that suggested she was still thinking. "Is to hone your movement. Come to the top of this wall and we shall discuss what you've learned." She jumped up in the air and to Austin's surprise floated up to the top of the wall. Where she landed gently and sat down with her knees on the ground. Austin first looked up at the wall. It was too high to climb but there were handholds where someone smashed their hands through. It was wooden, so it could be manipulated. Once Austin thought of all the things that could help him he backed up a bit and sent out the tendril of light that grabbed on to the farthest point on the wall it could. Austin had an idea then, he backed up a little more and put the tendrils in thin air. He then ran towards the wall and, blink. He arrived halfway up the wall and grabbed on one of the holes in the wood. He pushed off the wall put the blink tendril on top of the wall and, blink. He stumbled backwards and fell off the wall backwards. He almost hit the ground when something caught him. He looked at ikora to see her arm outstretched towards him and a smug smile on her face. She lowered him down to the ground and said "the blink conserves momentum in every way but down. Again, but keep that in mind. Austin repeated the feat but didn't push off the wall. On top of the wall was a large open space where ikora informed him "this is where we will train, you will put yourself up here every day and meet me. Now, we will work on offensive abilities. Ikora drilled him on the proper ways to throw a grenade and which one was right for him. Teaching him the diffrent feels of the three grenades and how to form them. Then it was on to rift making as she called it. She instructed Austin on the effects of the healing and empowering rifts and how they work. By the time they were done hours had passed. "Any questions before we end?" She asked Austin was caught off guard by the passage of time and thought of only one question "yeah. Where is the Hunter vanguard? You said that you and Zavala were vanguards so where's the hunter?" Ikora's head dipped and Austin saw the fire of rage in her eyes "after we get done here, you are to go to shaxx and see him for battle and tactic training." Austin knew it was not a subject ikora wanted to persue. He saw Casper and ophedious returning so he bowed like ikora had fought him and went off to find shaxx. When he was leaving he very faintly heard ikora say "hello, guardian."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo.... I feel like that last chapter was a little rushed out so have a long chapter as an apology :)
> 
>  
> 
> Cya later  
> -sharkbit


	9. 20 to 0

'So dying over 20 times in repid sucession isn't fun' austin said to himself as he peeked out from the overturned car he was using as cover. He quickly brought up his charged queenbreaker and put 2 shots into the last place he saw his enemy. Austin blinked up to a rooftop and saw that nothing was behind the cover he just shot at. "How does he move so quietly?" He asked a dematerialised Casper "I don't know. He dosent even show up on the motion tracker" at that moment tracker fire tore up the rooftop austin was at and blew off his left shoulderpad. Austin quickly blinked behind a chimney and practically screamed "ghost!" He had found out that his habit of calling Casper 'ghost reappeared in stressful situations "two o'clock high!" Replied the voice in his head. High? He was at the highest point in the area. He looked slightly to his right and up. He saw a orange speck get struck by lightning and come hurling towards him. 'Come on shaxx. Give me something to work with' was his last thought before the sky fell.

Roughly a hour and a half earlier Austin was walking towards his new teacher, lord shaxx. Following the directions of Casper, he found the booth in no time. The first thing austin noticed was the collection of heads, or helmets since he couldn't really tell, in neat piles in the floor. He also noticed, hanging from the ceiling, was a massive skull and also the chassis of some giant robot. A titan that was equally as massive as his decorations on the ceiling and had orange and white armor. With a helmet that had one horn that curled up to his head and another that was broken at the base. He was yelling into a microphone and watching a monitor. He had a cup of some unknown brown liquid in one hand, and was pounding the table with the other. "What do you think 'heavy ammo availible' means hunter?" He yelled into the microphone before saying in a quieter tone "that's it, I'm calling it. There is no shame in defeat, guardians. Learn from it" and with that he pressed a button on the monitor. Austin took this opportunity to ask "lord shaxx I presume?" The titan got up from the comically wooden chair he was sitting in, which squealed in relief, and turned to face Austin. "Yes, warlock. Now what do you need." Austin looked up at the titan and said "my name is Austin. Ikora said I should see you." Shaxx looked Austin up and down and balled his hands into fists and rested them on his hips. "You are Austin? Well then I have to say welcome!" He held out his hand for Austin to shake it. Austin hesitated for a moment then decided to not offend a titan that could probably rip him in half in a moments notice. Shaxx grasped his hand firmly but in such a way that Austin was surprised his hand wasn't crushed. "If I do recall correctly, ikora said you would like some battle and tactical experience." Shaxx said with a undertone Austin couldn't really make out. Shaxx strode out of his area and put his hand on Austin's shoulder making him follow. Again the gentleness shaxx demonstrated caught Austin off guard. They walked along the tower. Shaxx not asking as many questions as ikora, but more than happy to awnser any Austin had. Especially about combat. About an hour later they went through a massive gate to a part tower overlooking the rest of the city. "Welcome" said shaxx happily "to bannerfall, my favorite place to train young ones like you." 

'Train' was not the word Austin would use. Shaxx would fight Austin and inevitably kill him. When Casper revived Austin shaxx would spout some lesson and tell Austin what he did wrong and fight him again. One time after a pretty prolonged battle, Austin gasped awake to find shaxx sitting on a box examining Austin's ring. "Hey!" Austin exclaimed "give that back!" Shaxx looked up at Austin. "Was this on your body when you were awakened?" Austin nodded and shaxx tossed him the ring. "Tell me what you've learned" Austin slid the ring back on his finger and rolled his eyes under his helmet.

After shaxx showed him the way to his booth from bannerfall, Austin retired to his quarters. He collapsed onto his bed and Casper materialised. "I think shaxx likes you." He said optimistically. Austin chuckled. "Then I hate to see what he does to the people he dosent like." Austin fell asleep but Casper didn't. Casper had something to ask ikora. Something Austin couldn't be there for.


	10. Desertion

Austin fired his gun at the swarm of dregs, There were always more coming. A never ending tidal wave. One of the civilians he was defending screamed at him to watch out. He blinked backwards just in time to miss the dreg lunging at him, knife outstretched. Austin kicked it in the face, then unleashed a blast from his palm, sending it screaming towards the swarm. Another few feet lost. He primed a scatter grenade and held it, letting it feed off his light. When it pushed his hand to the brink of breaking, he threw it. It hit a dreg in the chest and exploded, sending little fragments in all directions, they exploded too. All of their kills disintegrated and formed a ball, which then too blew up. A sizeable hole formed in the mass of dregs, but it soon filled with more. He turned to the wide eyed civilian and froze. He knew her. She seemed too familiar to be real, she held out her hand and gave him a ring. The ring was black, on the top in between two jewels it had the name 'austin'. Austin looked up at the woman and she said "find us." She screamed and Austin turned around, the swarm of dregs were upon them. He found the chill of the void in his chest and let it pool in his hand. He yelled at the mass in defiance. He woke up screaming.

Casper was off the dresser in a literal flash. After a second he reappeared. "Same dream?" He asked, concerned. Austin was breathing heavily on his bed, he looked around their room and weakly nodded to his friend. "How many days has it been?" Austin had been at the city for 5 weeks, training with ikora and shaxx. Occasionally he would get to have a session with Zavala where he'd make speeches on something Austin didn't remember. He had begun having nightmares around the second week of his new life. Casper said that it was normal, but occasionally Austin would wake with Casper already floating around his head. "That would be 3 nights between nightmares" Casper said after a short calculating pause. Austin cursed in his head. At first it had been a week since his dream occurred, now they were quickly getting closer together. "I still thing we should check out old new york." Austin said. "And I still think we should ask ikora" Casper retorted after the dream happened a few times Austin suggested they should go to where he was reborn to see if there were any clues. Casper immediately shut down the idea saying that they should ask ikora, hoping that she knew what was happening. This had been their little argument every time a nightmare happened. Austin got up and went out the door, it was time to go to ikora anyway. When he was there he decided to tell ikora about his dream. After a particularly difficult lesson involving leveraging with the light, he asked her "did you ever have dreams, Or nightmares?" Ikora stopped and looked at him. "What do you mean?" She asked sounding genuinely intrigued. Austin wasted no time in telling her the details of his recurring nightmare. Ikora listened intently, only interrupting to ask quick questions. When he was done, ikora sat back and visibly pondered the problem presented to her. "I don't remember if I had these dreams but, I say you should find out what you can." She pressed an object into Austin's hand and winked. She then sent him off to find shaxx, as he was always at the place they trained at, sparring with some poor guardian, And the day continued. Austin spoke with Zavala about finding what his dreams were about. That went about as good as fighting shaxx on a bad day. Austin was angry. The one person who could authorise a mission turned it down. Austin thought of a plan. "What did ikora give us again?" He asked Casper. Casper again, cheerfully replied. "A ship! It's old and rickity but she gave us an Arcadia class jumpship!" 'Perfect!' Austin thought and ghost studdered in his bobbing up and down for a second. Austin walked out of the room and Casper followed. He headed for the hangar. 

That night a ship flew away from the wall. The ornve engines a stark contrast from the cloudy sky. It flew west, after one circle around the area guardians went about. However one person watched and he intended to talk to Holliday about this ship. He leaned forward. His blue face being shadowed by the wall of his right gauntlet. He sighed, if this was who he thought it was, he had a person for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again for the short chapter! I had alot of ideas and nowhere to put them so I added a crappy segway! (Yaaay)
> 
> Cya later  
> -sharkbit


	11. Target acquired

"So why do you think Zavala wanted to see us?" I asked S-R-H-4 she sighed and shook her head. I smiled, knowing that she heard me think of her actual name. "First off I told you to use sarah." She said. I continued to smile "it's just a term of affection." Niko." She said, defeated. "Second off, you know everything I know So you have the awnser." I nodded in my place above her shoulder. She thought it was something about us being at old America. We had formulated, revised, and tested our cover story, but it never felt right. I could feel Sarah's heart, or the exp equivalent of a heart, racing. "Thank you" she said to my use of her taken name. As we came up to Zavala Sarah stopped and waited for Zavala to speak. His ghost was turned to us, so we knew he was gonna talk to us soon. After a while he turned around. "Do you know why I wanted to see you?" He said in a low voice. Sarah was the first to speak. We assumed it was something to do with us breaking quarantine at old America." Zavala's gaze softened a bit, and he said "no. That will have to wait. We had an unautherised guardian deployment from the hangar. Not even holiday knew about it. I have reason to expect that it was Austin. The Austin you brought back." I fept Sarah's heart skip a beat, but other than that she held no reaction. Zavala continued "if what I know is true, he has no intention of returning anytime soon. I need you to go and find him and bring him back. However, do not force him back, if he resists let him continue his endeavour but stay with him. We are always in need of another guardian." Sarah stayed silent a second longer to see if he had anything else to say. Then she said "understood, zavala. But as I'm sure you know I am out a ship." Zavala's gaze loosened even more as he said "I am aware. I already have that covered. Do you know the Hunter that brought you back from new york?" Sarah racked her brain and I fed her a stream of information. "Yes, I remember him." Zavala nodded and continued. " I've had him preparing his ship for departure. He is gonna be your partner for this mission." Sarah picked up on that conclusion and saluted and spun around. With that we headed for the hangar.

When we got to the hangar, we were bombarded with the sounds of construction and repair. A single ship was on the launch deck, a blue dropship class, with a gun under the cockpit and a ramp leading into the back. It was shaped like our old ship and I could even see little chairs ment to hold more people than just the pilot like in fighter or intercepter class ships. Sarah could tell I was geeking out about the ship because she quickly requested all the information I knew about Austin based on my brief deep dive into his light to correct any 'wrinkles' as I called them. I fed her the information as we walked underneath a pair of boots lazily dangilling down from atop a side thruster. Sarah pounded on the side of the ship three times and we saw the boots jump up and down quickly. They disappeared from view and a second later we saw a helmet pop out and look down at us. The helmet was a modified old pre-collapse gas mask that had a tube where the mouth was and 2 glowing yellow eyes that were black at this moment. The Hunter (because only hunters wore those helmets) tapped the side if his mask and the glowing in the eyes returned. He took the hood off and the helmet vanished, revealing an awoken man with orange hair and piercing glowing yellow eyes. Sarah asked up at him "Nathan I presume?" The Hunter on the ship awnsered "yep, that's me. Would you be sarah?" When Sarah awnsered in the affermative the Hunter jumped of the ship head first, spun around and landed on his feet with one hand touching the floor with a soft thump. The Hunter was wearing pants that looked deceptively like jeans but both me and Sarah knew they were as tough as metal. They were brown with a holster holding a sidearm on his right hip. His chest had a metal plate covering his breast but his stomach and shoulders were covered with a basic light, flexible, kevlar. His arms had a silver coated something covering them. It was extremely rough and ended at points over his knuckles and fingers. He had a cape that was a replica of the Hunter vanguard's. He said "you like her?" gesturing at his ship "she's never failed me. Are you ready to go? We should be refeuled in about 5 minutes." Sarah looked at me and I said "Yes, we are ready to go all our stuff is in Sarah's backpack." Everybody called the molecular storage space in a guardian's armor the 'backpack' it stored the data of all the weapons and armor the guardian had and when needed translated them into the guardian's hands or on their back. "Perfect" Nathan said before jumping up and using his boosters to jump again midair and land on the top of his ship. He grabbed his welding gear. His helmet reappeared with the dark eyes and he finished up his welds. The helmet then vanished again and he dropped down with the welding gear in hand, making a louder impact this time, and went inside. I cought the thought from Sarah and put her auto rifle on her back, in between her shoulders where she could grab it if needbe. Then we stride into Nathan's ship as the ramp closed behind us.


	12. A legion in red

After what Casper called a "crash course in ship flying" austin was getting the hang of flying. He would test the ship by doing aerial acrobatics and test the feel of the ship. After an hour of flying Casper finally said "press this yellow button." Austin pressed the button Casper was hovering over and he felt the joystick and throttle move to neutral positions. "What was that?" He asked Casper, fascinated. "That," Casper said flying to the back of the cockpit. "Was the autopilot. It flys the ship when you or I can't. It also will help me show you this." Casper threw out a beam of light that caused a round hole to open up in the back of the cabin. The chair Austin was sitting on became loose and swirled around to face the hole. Casper flew through the resulting hole and Austin followed. He crawled through the hole and found a bar above the exit. He grabbed it and used it to pull is body through the hole and into a small room. It was a dark room with only a couple red lights lighting up the place. Since the room was so small Austin had to crouch and crawl to the place Casper was. "Ikora left us some presents, guardian" said ghost said with a smile. The wall to Austin's left opened up to reveal a small armory. Austin shifted to view the wall of combat potential. Austin leaned forward and picked up a small handgun and looked at it. It was a faded green with a black grip. The muzzle was long and the triggerguard had spikes on it. He put the pistol behind his back and it magnitudes to the back of his waist. Austin then found a rifle. Like with the pistol, he took it from the rack and looked it over. It was a rifle with a scope. Austin realised it was a sniper rifle. One from the vanguard if the white and blue paint had anything to say. The gun had the vanguard symbol on the side of the scope. Casper hovered over the gun and it vanished in a flash of blue light. Austin looked up at Casper who then said "Its in the cockpit. I wasn't gonna let you fumble your way through the hole with a rifle in your hands." Austin smiled then looked at the last weapon on the rack. A sword. He didn't take this one off the rack at first. The sword was made up of sections that fluttered and shifted colors in the dmim light of the armory. The crossguard was a hollow circle with a handle coming off it. Austin carefully touched the blade and lifted it off the rack. He then threw the blade over his shoulder while holding the handle and let it magnetized to his back. Casper uttered a eased exclamation and let out another beam of light. The armory expanded to the right to show armor on racks as well. "It looks like ikora stocked us up with old iron banner armor. Should look good on you." The armor had the texture and look of cloth woven together from squares, but had the toughness of metal. Austin looked at Casper And smiled "we so owe ikora for this!"

A few minutes later a newly armored guardian and ghost climbed back into the cabin of their ship just in time to get a raspy language come over the radio. "What's that noise?" Asked Austin ghost scanned the instrument panel and muttered a quiet "oh no" the cockpit glass expanded for a full view of above and below the pilot seat as well as to the sides. Through this, Austin saw a giant fleet of red ships. "Cabal" Casper said with unusual anger and hate in his voice. Once more the raspy voice said something over the comms. "What weapons does this thing have?" Ghost took a moment and one pulse of light to say "on your HUD" Austin felt his new helmet come over his head and he saw a shield gauge and guns and missiles on his display. Casper disappeared after saying a quick "enemy ships are charging weapons." The joystick and throttle came up to Austin's hands. The trigger on the joystick and the button on top began glowing red. "Ours are ready, though." Austin punched the throttle.

"Flares away!" Yelled Casper in his ear. Austin tore the ship down through the turret fire to launch 2 missiles on the top of a cabal carrier. He spun the ship and pulled up, pressing the trigger to take out a enemy fighter that was taking off. He pulled up from his closeness to the carrier and fired 2 more missiles at the stability thrusters of a cabal destroyer the thrusters blew up and the ship went slowly spinning Austin had an idea he pulled the ship alongside the crippled destroyer to where the carrier was behind it and fired. He fired all his missiles, and lit the side up with his own turrets. Slowly but surely the enemy ship gained momentum towards the carrier. "Six O'clock high!" Casper said before Austin hit the throttle. "Guided missiles! Flares arnt working!" He heard with a hint of panic in Casper's voice. Austin was so preoccupied with losing the missiles he didn't realise he was going broadside to the carrier. He finally looked up and beheld the symbol of the red legion. The symbol expanded until all he could see was the symbol 

A hand reached out to grab him, it pulled him from his stupor. "Austin!" A voice screamed "Austin! The shuttles are leaving!" Austin looked towards the traveler, it flashed red and black. He looked at the team fighting the monsters. They flashed and fell to their knees. Their floating companions fell to the ground. The monsters laughed and marched forward, crushing the floating robots that fell underfoot, killing the protesters that dared rise to challenge. The hand pulled him to the last ship. The last ship out of the last city. The last city that was lost.

"That's it, ejecting!" Ghost yelled in his ear and Austin felt all his weight leave him and a heat from a explosion lick at his feet.

The cabal gunner laughed and got down from his cannon. His giant boots mami g a loud thud when they impacted the metal floor of the carrier. There was still the destroyer coming at them, but nothing the boys at the alpha broadsides couldn't handle. He heard a noise and turned around wanting to watch the show of the ship exploding. His eyes widened as he saw what he got instead. His last thought was that of kicking himself. The ones they fought had one thing you had to do. The one thing that was drilled into them from birth was the one thing he forgot: when fighting a guardian, always confirm the kill. The sword sliced into his neck and he uttered one tiny yelp before the guardian slid to a stop, sword outstretched. The helmet of the cabal slid off, showing air where a head might be. The body tipped and fell over the side, down to the earth where it would never be seen again. The guardian stood up and sheathed his sword on his back. "Let's see what these cabal know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I didn't update last time because of school and work. But that means I had time to plan this chapter better! Sorry for the slightly longer wait.
> 
> cya later  
> -sharkbit


	13. A heart to shell

The voice crackled over the radio of Nathan's ship. "Guardian hawk number one zero two zero one cleared for takeoff when ready." Nathan looked over at Sarah in the co-pilot seat "is everything ready my lovely assistant?" He asked with a smirk. Sarah shot him a exo equivalent of a glare and said "all systems are green." Nathan nodded and pushed the throttle unroll the engines were shooting fire out of the thrusters. The voice came back over the comms. "Release in five." Sarah barley had enough time to click her seatbelt into place before the clamps on the ship's underbelly released and it shot forward into the sky.

"And we are clear" Nathan said with cockiness in his voice. Sarah ignored him and began checking the shield and weapons systems. "Where we going first?" Nathan asked Sarah. "Zavala briefed you, right?" She asked. When Nathan awnsered in the affermative she continued "then you know that we are searching for a newly rezzed warlock. I was there on his second day so I'm willing to bet he'll start where his ghost found him. Set a course for old America. Around new york." Nathan smiled and playfully said "but miss titan, I thought the regulations said old America was under quarentine!" Sarah pushed her chair away from the console and walked in between the 2 pilot seats muttering "just set the course." She walked into the cargo bay and pulled down one of the chairs on the walls. The cargo hold was big but not huge. It could probably fit four sparrows in a two by two square. The roof was just big enough for Sarah to not need to crouch. The walls were lined with metal frames with rope inside it that pull down to form chairs. There were three on each side of the bay, one of which was occupied by Sarah at the moment. She pulled out her auto rifle and, with experienced hands, took off the wooden casing and began to clean and disassemble her gun. Niko materialised in front of her, but she didn't pay any attention. "Hey," niko tried to get her guardian's attention. She tried a couple more times before resigning to resting on Sarah's knee and waiting for her guardian to cool off. After a couple minutes Sarah sighed. "You already know what's wrong." Niko smiled and said in a soft voice "it helps when you say it out loud. Plus, i like your voice." That got sarah to smile. Niko always knew the right buttons to press. "I never liked working with hunters. They get too cocky." Niko rose off of Sarah's knee and up to eye level. "That is true." She paused to look over Sarah's half dismantled gun. "Now tell me what's actually wrong." Sarah looked at her ghost, who could feel the gears turning in her guardian's head (literally and figuratively), and after a few seconds hung her head in defeat. "What are we gonna do about austin?" She asked "we can't just..." she trailed off, lost in thought. Niko flew closer to Sarah. "You feel like your betraying him." It wasn't a question. Sarah just nodded her head. Niko just hovered there, thinking. "I don't know how that would be betraying him. If anything your protecting him." Sarah looked up at her partner. "But if he's chasing the nightmares." That's all she needed to say. Niko knew what she was talking about. When guardians are first resurrected they all have nightmares. Some say it's about their past, some say their future, a couple even said their present, But they all had them. The ones that went chasing those nightmares were found dead clutching their destroyed ghosts. Since they were all inexperienced, they all died. Sometimes ghosts would survive but they all flew to the traveler sooner or later. If austin was seeking these nightmares out, he could be found like all the others. "We will find him." Niko assured her guardian "and when we do, you'll have to ask shaxx to take over his combat mentoring over austin for the day." Sarah cupped niko out of the air and touched her to her forehead. "Thank you, niko." Niko disappeared out of Sarah's gentle grasp and said in her head "That's what I'm here for. Among other things." Sarah reassembled her gun and walked back into the cabin where Nathan was leaning back with his feet up on the console. "Three hours to go, ladies! Imma get some quick shuteye" and with that he pulled his hood over his eyes and crossed his arms. Sarah rolled her eyes and thought to niko 'thank the traveler for that' as she looked out of the forward window she too leaned back and listened to the joyous sound of niko' s laughter ringing through her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I thought Sarah and niko needed a bit of character development. So here this is....... I am gonna do two storylines for a bit. Austin will be in the next chapter and then we will be back with Sarah, Nathan, and niko after that....lets see how this goes, and more importantly, how many things can go wrong 🙄
> 
> Cya later  
> -sharkbit
> 
>  
> 
> (P.s sorry for the short chapter)


	14. What they know

"What do you mean 'What they know'?" Casper asked, still dematerialised and viewing the world through austin's eyes. Austin ignored caspers question and put the sword on his back. He took inventory of his weapons and equipment. "What did we lose when the ship went down?" Casper rolled his mind's eye and said "the only thing I could save wasthe queenbreaker. The ship and your other armor is gone." Austin felt a pang of regret for the ship and the armor he was revived in, but those feelings went away when he heard loud metal footsteps coming down a hall behind the only door to the gun emplacement he was at. Austin drew his pistol and aimed at the door. A raspy electronic voice came from behind the door. Confirming Austin's fears. The door opened to see a giant humanoid. It was extremely fat with small legs and arms. It's armor was red and black, with the pelt of some animal on its arms. It's helmet was shaped like half a football (which Austin had the pleasure of seeing when two kids passed through the courtyard playing catch) with two glowing orange eyes. The cabal froze when it saw Austin, who then extended a tendril of light to the helmet still on the ground and threw it up towards the stunned soldier. The cabal threw his hands up to. Block the flying head and Austin took his chance. He fired three shots, one in one knee, causing the cabal to drop to one knee, one in an elbow, dropping the arm. The head hit the cabal on its head, causing it to snap back, Austin shot one final time, noticing the soft thump the gun made. This bullet caught the cabal in the neck and blew off its helmet with a tiny explosion and a spray of a black liquid. The cabal clutched at it's exposed face before the liquid stopped shooting up and the cabal fell with a loud clank. Austin sat still, listening. He was so focused that he jumped when Casper piped up in his ear. "A legionary, must have come up with orders. Let me at his suit." Austin slowly made his way to the legionary. Foreign another shot into the back of it's head with another soft thump. Casper materialised and scanned the body. "It looks like it had orders to tell the gunner of this section to come to the brig." Casper stopped scanning and turned towards Austin "they have human prisoners they are going to transfer for execution!" Austin got the hint and walked through the door the new corpse came through. He barely noticed Casper dissapear in a flash of light. Before the door closed Austin drew his sword and prepared himself for the fight he would find within the carrier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super short chapter! I didn't really have time to write more. But I'll have a good one with the others in the next chapter to make up for it.
> 
> Cya later  
> -sharkbit


	15. Not clean yet

Sarah stood at the end of the lowered ramp of Nathan's ship, her auto rifle in hand and a rocket launcher on her back. Nathan strolled up to her from the cargo bay. "So," he asked her above the engines of the ship. "Where are we?" Sarah awnsered in the same raised voice "my crashed ship. We may find some long range scanner or something not completely picked clean." Nathan flicked the cartridge of his hand cannon into the body of the gun and said "then let's go!" With that, he jumped off the ramp and fell into the debris field. Sarah followed soon after, firing her boosters to slow her decent. When she landed she scanned the area of the wreckage for any fallen. "Clear" she said to Nathan through their helmet comms. Nathan looked at her, the yellow eyes of his helmet glowing, and nodded. They started towards the ship. When they got to the exploded cargo bay Sarah signaled for Nathan to stop. They took cover on either side of the door and Sarah took out a grenade. Nathan looked at it and nodded, and Sarah threw it into the cargo bay. An explosion and screeching was heard and the guardians burst into the room. There were five blinded vandals in the room, and sarah flinched. Nathan, however, didn't and threw three knives from between his fingers which caught three vandals in the neck. Sarah took the opportunity to gun down the last two standing. Nathan went into the room and let his ghost out. It was green with a red symbol on the left of it's front, top plate. It opened and pulsed multiple times. Sarah held her gun on the door to watch for any unwanted guests. The final pulse went through the room and the ghost turned to Nathan and in a female voice said " nothing has changed from the scans niko gave me." Sarah suddenly turned to Nathan "you mean they just found this?" She asked. Nathan's ghost looked back and forth between the two guardians. "Athena." Nathan said. There was a boom in the sky as the heads of everyone turned up. "Fallen dropships uncloaking!" Niko said over the comms so everyone could hear. Nathan turned to his ghost "Athena! Is there anything here to use?" Athena pulsed twice more and disappeared. Her voice came over the comms a moment later. "The cockpit scanners are still working!" Nathan pulled Sarah towards the door of the cockpit as fallen looked through. Nathan's gun barked and sent a massive jolt up his arm. The dreg that was looking in flew backwards and landed a few feet away, without a head. Sarah threw a grenade that stuck to the wall and threw out lighting every other second. Sarah and nathan found cover and waited until the sound of the grenade stopped. They simultaneously peeked over their cover and beheld the platoon of fallen inside the ship. Nathan summoned his three knives of fire and Sarah lept into the air. The captain started to shout orders, but stopped when three knives broke his shield and found his head. Sarah called a little bit of the lightning inside her and crashed down, making a small explosion that baptised the vandals closest to her. She felt a weight roll over her and looked yo see Nathan kick a sword wielding fallen in the jaw. The fallen's face crashed down onto the ground, it's broken neck bent at an awkward angle. Sarah rose and fired her gun at the next fallen in line. More dropped down from the ship. However many they killed more took their place. Eventually Sarah realised that the fallen were transmitting onto the ship and dropping down onto the battlefield. Sarah said into her helmet microphone "I'm going for the ship!" Nathan looked over at her and nodded before tolling away from a captain, knocking it's shields down with a kick as his feet became freed, stabbing it in the chest and finishing it off with a shot to the head. Sarah crouched and felt the energy inside her as her heart rate sped up. The energy dump glowed out of her chest but she focused it into her right fist. When all the arc energy was channelled she let it loose and jumped up, incinerating the fallen and bodies near her and soared towards the fallen skiff. She burst into the cabin where she had just enough time to appreciate the pilots face before detonating her arc energy outwards in a massive explosion. She consumed the last of her arc light to slam back down in the middle of the horde of fallen where she sat kneeling with a fist on the ground, waiting for the fallen to make a move. Just before they did she saw a Hunter jump out of the wreckage of her ship, he was on fire with his face framed by multiple flaming knives. Nathan twirled, throwing both hands of knives around Sarah. The knives burrowed themselves into whatever they hit, be it fallen or the ground, or even Sarah herself. Nathan landed and the knives exploded. Leaving all the fallen dead or dying. The knives in Sarah didn't hurt her at all, they just refilled her light letting her stand up, less tired. Nathan strolled over to a half desontegrated fallen captain and asked "we're looking for a guardian, a warlock. You wouldent happen to have seen him would you?" The captain said something in his language and Athena appeared. "He called you some sort of dirty scum, not worthy to be on the boot of a dreg." She turned to the captain "really? There are so many better insults to throw at this guy." Nathan shot the captain once and his body went limp "Jackass"


	16. Two survivors

Austin pulled the sword out of the now limp body of a cabal foot soldier. As the body crashed to the floor he asked casper "where to now?" Casper was quiet for a second "okay, I'm going to redirect you to the hangar bay. They are going to move the prisoners to the surface at a place called 'terrabase charon' and then the ship is going to make its way to Enceladus, where they are going to be the beach head for another base. We need to be out of here before that happens." Austin stowed his sword and drew his pistol. "With the prisoners" he told Casper. "With the prisoners" the ghost agreed. Nathan made his way through the ship. Hiding where possible and killing when necessary. The duo made their way to the hangar bay, they were on an observation deck overlooking the actual bay. Austin looked at the bay that was clear of cover except for one ship. An Idea formed in his head, he had the high ground, his enemies were in the open, he could blink to relocate, and he had a rifle. "Casper?" He asked and the construct appeared over his shoulder. Austin took in his surroundings again, wanting to be ready for every variable. "What are the cabal doing?" Casper closed his blue eye. "The camera feeds show that they are moving the prisoners now." Austin smiled "perfect" Casper opened his eye and flew to look Austin in the eye. "Perfect? What are you thinking?" Austin looked at his friend and pulled out his sniper rifle from its spot on his back. Casper's eye widened, then he too smiled. "Lets hope your aim is as good as you think it is." He said with eagerness in his voice. He disappeared and Austin set to work. He chose a spot on the overlook with the clearest view around the parked cabal lander, set his rifle on the railing, and looked through his scope. Casper set a waypoint that followed the prisoners and their guards. After a couple minutes the cabal came in. There were two leigionaries, one on each side bringing up the rear. In the front was a cabal commander, Austin could tell by the fan on his head making a Mohawk on the helmet, and the telltale shimmer of a shield around him. But what interested Austin the mist were the prisoners in the middle. One male, one female, they looked beaten and starved so that they barely walked straight. Austin decided to take out the biggest threat first. He aimed at the commander's leg and fired. The rifle cracked and jumped into his shoulder, the bullet rocketed out with an orange trail behind it. It slammed into the shield and broke it, the bullet took out the commander's leg and he dropped to one knee. Then his shield exploded, it threw the other guards and the prisoners backwards. The leigionaries got up and yelled into their helmets, then shoved the prisoners past the dead halves of their commander. Austin fired again, the crack echoing off the metal walls, and took the head off another legionary. The remaining soldier fired off shots in the direction of Austin, forcing him to move. The cabal got to the ship with the two humans and shoved them into two of the doors on the sides and closed them while he climbed into another. Austin shot at him again but the bullet bounced harmlessly off the closing door. Austin cursed and kept down onto the bay floor, blinking the last few feet to lessen the impact, and sprinted at the dropship that was now firing up it's engines. The rifle dematerialised from his hands, letting him run without having the clunky weight of it. He grabbed hold of one of the handholds just as the ship was taking off and pulled himself into one of the dropship's ports, made for one cabal soldier. He reached up and closed the door. When the door sealed a hole in the back opened up and Austin crawled through to find a small hallway leading to the cockpit with all of the pod doors on either side. He pulled out his pistol and began to walk forward when his footsteps were extremely loud. The cabal pilot took a gun and fired behind it. Austin cursed at the incoming fire and quickly put three suppressed shots through the chair in front of him. The cabal squealed and dropped the gun it was holding and went limp. Austin rushed up to the controls and was going to begin pressing buttons when the cabal suddenly sprung back to life. It grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up, causing him to drop his gun. The cabal pressed a button on the console and spoke. It sounded like a computer was just barely putting the words together. "Let... me...kill...dead...people...your" Austin quipped back, "I would rather bury the dead" and unsheathed his sword. With one swipe he cut off the cabal's hand, making it drop him. He then stabbed the screaming cabal in the back and hoisted it out of the chair. It tried to crawl away but Austin grabbed it through the head. He took his hands off the sword and it stayed upright. He didn't have time to admire his handiwork as the ship started to go faster. Austin hot into the pilot seat just in time to watch the ship go into warp.

Austin left a babbling casper to the console and went to go find the prisoners. He opened the door to one pod and found the man passed out. He used the light to drag him out and sit him against the wall. He then went to find the woman. When he opened the pod a piece of a pole jabbed through the door and hit Austin on the head. The woman realised her mistake and apologised quickly. Austin just laughed and helped her through the hole and sat her down beside the man. "Is he going to be okay?" She asked, obviously concerned. Austin called Casper over and he scanned the unconscious man. "He is going to be fine. Although food and water won't hurt either of you." Austin finally asked the woman "why were you two captured?" She took a moment to awnser and said in a low voice "we were part of a village in old Mexico. We were doing good and growing until these cabal" her voice trailed off and Austin understood. They were the only survivors. Casper called Austin to the cockpit, and said " we are coming out of warp." Austin noted Casper's grave tone but didn't say anything. The warp ended to reveal a white sphere encompassing the whole view of the glass. "This is enceladus." Austin gawked at the moon. "Theres also a problem" austin looked at casper and casoer slowly turned to austin "the ship was programmed to come out of warp closer to the surface. It didnt because we have run out of fuel. I've programmed a glide path onto the computer, but it's going to be a crash landing." Austin looked at the moon in a new light. The cabal didn't finish fueling the ship before Austin attacked. He looked at Casper and said ghost slowly came to rest on the console of the ship while Austin looked at the growing moon. "We've got no way back."


	17. Austin Theodore Dawson

S_R_H-4 landed at the bottom of the skyscraper with a crunch. Titan armor will protect you from almost everything except a fall. In a fall the only thing it can do is kill you faster. I materialised in the small crater she formed and looked up. Fallen bodies were getting thrown off but being devoured by solar light before they hit the ground. I opened my shell and focused on restoring Sarah's body. The commotion on the roof stopped and I saw a figure jump off and do some showing off on the way down. After a couple seconds I heard Nathan's double jump boosters fire twice to slow his descent and a sizeable thump as he landed. "Before you ask, yes she is dead." Nathan went on one knee to examine the crushed husk of Sarah on the ground that was slowly expanding as I restored it. He held up his left hand and his ghost, Athena, appeared. She beheld the body and exclaimed "traveler! How do you restore that?" "Slowly." I retorted, not breaking my concentration as I expanded a particularly resistant piece of the heart. I was concentrating so much I almost didn't hear Nathan ask Athena if she could help. "I would rather you not." I said "but if you must, you can help with her organs and that sort of thing." Athena floated over to me and sent out her beam of light to begin restoring Sarah's body. We worked for a couple hours. Athena being a bigger help than I expected, and i kept Sarah's light safe within my core as I worked on her bones and structure. Once she was healed, I took a single lap around her, checking for anything out of place or wrong. Once I was satisfied, i took Sarah's light, and by extension her soul, and brought it up to my shell. Once I was open and charged her light with my own I Sent a blast of light back into her, making sure to carefully restore her breath, And she shot up. She looked up at the skyscraper towering above her and groaned. "That sucked." She said. Nathan laughed and she turned and frowned at him. I did too, as sharing a mind with her means I experienced her last moments as well. Getting stabbed by a captain and thrown off a building did suck and I told Nathan so. He stood up and raised his hands, chuckling. Athena disappeared and Sarah stood up. She stretched her stiff muscles and asked me "please tell me you got the info on austin." I sifted through the data I collected and smiled "yes, I did. I didn't get much because you decided to go skydiving." I shot her a smile and continued "but I did get a file on Austin Theodore dawson. It'll take me some time to sift through all of it though." Sarah nodded and I dematerialised. Suddenly viewing the world through sarahs eyes like a movie. She turned to Nathan and told him "niko has put a waypoint on my HUD. I'm going to Send it to you." It was true, I found a reference for a console that was still active somehow. That had been collecting data. Sarah and Nathan set off through the streets of old new York.

It wasn't long before we found the building. Only three patrols were in the area. Now that we 'relocated' them we could search the area for the console. Sarah let me out and I opened my shell and pulsed. I got structural readings, and underground tunnels that may be fun later. Another pulse, and I got plumbing and dead electric wires. One last pulse and bingo! A data stream going to one console on the third floor. I sent the information to Sarah's mind and helmet. Before I returned to Sarah's 'backpack' I informed them "I have no more data on Austin in this file. It says 'for any further reference see file 1465B, and it has a directory to a file on that console." Sarah nodded and I returned to her. Her and Austin went up the stairs and cleared each floor. I kept a scan up and sent the data to the tracker on her helmet. When we reached the floor we went to the console and the guardians kept a eye on the door while I moved over to the console and began reading all the data. I accidentally let the data slip directly into Sarah's mind and she said "niko talk, don't stream." I snapped out of my reading and said "right. It looks like before the red war his file is classified, but I'm trying to crack it. During the red war he fought with Hawthorne's squad to break the gates. His last file is during cayde's funeral." I looked at Sarah. I couldn't see her face but I knew her melancholy mood. I continued "it says here that he was last seen coming back into orbit headed west after he was ambushed at the EDZ. Presumably he died after that. It's funny though, all this data is on a constant stream from the city archives." Sarah knew where I was headed and continued "so someone is using this data for themselves?" I awnsered "yeah, and it was opened to guardian missions when I got to it." Right then I broke through the encryption of the classified data. "Ah-ha! Classified data is open to me." Then I saw it. Whatever was in my head died In my metaphorical throat, And I couldn't stop reading. I faintly heard Sarah ask me something but she sounded farther and farther away with each second. It all made sense, why I couldent find the source of the shots, why they died so fast, the damage to the ghosts, why healing Sarah was so hard. I felt the vibrations of Sarah moving and the muffled sound of nathan talking. It was only when sarah scooped me out of the air and held me to her chest that I snapped out of it. I heard Sarah say in a soft voice "niko. What did you find?" I looked at her and Nathan and noticed that she had her helmet off. I managed to studder out "he was a bounty hunter. Taking bounties to hunt guardians." Realisation flashed across Sarah's face and I said in a low voice "it was him, sarah." Austin Theodore Dawson killed our fireteam."


	18. A harsh disagreement

"What does it actually say?" Sarah said to me. I couldn't do anything but stare up at her desperation filled eyes. She practically yelled the question again "what does it say!" I had the sense left to float out of her grip. if there is any place you want to be when a titan is angry, the hands is not one of them. Nathan took this moment to put a hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Hey! Listen, that was his first life, when we get chosen we don't remember our first life. He is a completely diffrent person. You were friends with him!" She shoved him away and stood up. "He killed the only family I've known! I've been alone since then, wandering the wilds." 

Then Nathan said it. He did the one thing you should have the sense to not do. He poked the bear, he cornered the dog. He angered the titan. "Until you met austin." Sarah's eyes grew wide. I saw the streaks of lightning come off her clenched fists and I dematerialised, viewing the world through Sarah's rage filled eyes. She jumped up, threw her fists behind her head, and called the lightning. Nathan saw this and rolled away as Sarah came crashing down, Sending an explosion of arc out in all directions. Nathan rode this wave across a table and through a windowframe. He ducked behind a cubicle and, from the data my scans returned, I saw him draw his hand cannon. "He's not the same assassin, sarah." He said from behind his cover. Sarah launched her overcharged body at the desk and rolled over it and slammed down behind it, letting another shockwave loose. Nathan said from behind her "he is a part of the light now, he can't be held responsible." Sarah threw a punch behind her, but hit nothing, as there was nothing too hit. Nathan showed himself behind a desk, his hand cannon aimed at Sarah's head. "Just calm down and we can think this through." Sarah roared and charged him again. Three massive shots hit Sarah's armor and I went to work repairing them. Nathan rolled away as Sarah jumped over another cubicle but I felt her channel the ark into her legs and knew the move she was trying to pull. Her legs erupted into a missile engine and she rocketed out of the building, only to turn back and detonate beside Nathan. She landed on one knee and looked up only to get a lightning staff smacked directly on her face. She rolled backwards until she could stand and we looked at Sarah's opponent. Nathan was encased in arc energy standing side on to us with a staff made if lightning itself braised against the side farthest from us, and his hand closest to us out for even more balance in his slightly crouched stance. Sarah hesitated "what? Never seen an arcstrider dance before?" Sarah's rage returned and she lunged forward as she summoned the void. It traveled down her arm and out of the top of her right hand where it spiraled and hardened into a roundshield. Nathan likewise dashed forward and the two guardians locked supers. "Risen or not that dosent change what he did!" Sarah yelled over her shield. "But he dosent remember doing anything! I bet you have a nasty history too." Nathan retorted in a calm demeanor. Sarah pushed her shield which caused Nathan to be launched back, but he hit nothing, as he flipped or slid past most of the debris from their battle. Sarah spun and threw her shield which Nathan obviously dodged, but the shield bounced off the wall behind him and Nathan quickly flipped over the threat while Sarah summoned another shield and bashed him over the face. Nathan crashed into the wall and dropped his staff, causing him to lose his super. Sarah charged at him but he dodged under the blow and Shot her exposed shield hand with his hand cannon. He put one hand on the wound and another on Sarah's back and flipped her over him. While he was doing this I felt the light of Sarah's super drain from her hand and get transferred into solar light as it rushed into nathan's. I heard a rush of fire and Sarah hit the ground to see a flaming hand cannon pointed at her chest. I felt the searing, burning pain Sarah felt as one. Two. Three shots were fired into her chest and it began desintegrating. I experienced the feeling of losing your legs as your body gets dissolved in half by fire and finally the final thought of Sarah as her latest life ended and I opened my eyes to find myself in the room with Nathan subcontiously gathering Sarah's light. I looked at Nathan, who still was on fire with the flaming hand cannon. And he reached out with his unburdened hand, which I understandably shrank away from, and touched my core. I felt the light he took from her flood back into my pool of her light and he dropped flaming. And the hand cannon vanished. "If that is how she s going to act. Then I won't help you anymore. Athena, bring the ship around." The neon green shell of his ghost appeared and she informed him in a low voice "no can do. The cabal have the airspace locked down. Something about a guardian attack and a emergency jump to Enceladus. If we want to get out of here, we need to walk about 30 klicks west." Nathan nodded and took one last look at me with a dissapointed shake of his helmeted head. And turned to walk away. I called after him "wait!" He stopped and turned his head to look at me out of the corner of his eye. "Where are you going?" After a couple seconds he said "to find Austin. He is going to need all the help he can get. And plus, walking for a while will really clear Sarah's head." 

And he left Athena stayed for a couple seconds more until she too vanished in a blue flash. I was left there, alone. Nathan had deserted us, austin was who knows where, and Sarah was dead again. I took a couple seconds to process what had just happened. Sarah was still half councious in my core but she never remembers what goes on in between death and revival, still I talk to her. And this time before I pulled up the reference of her body for molecular reconstruction I said to her "we really need to work on your anger management, don't we?" And I felt a pang of sad acknowledgement flash through me and I began the process of reviving S_R_H-4.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So imma change up my update schedule a bit: I'll now post on Fridays and mondays.....
> 
> Also, I know I'm kinda playing with the supers a little bit and I kinda wanted to explain my reasoning: the supers can be chained together as long as they are of the Same subclass.  
> They can activate supers very close to one another, but it leaves them more tired than normal.  
> And lastly, they can mix abilities from all the subclasses they have but, as I said, it takes more energy than using abilities they have from the subclass they've summoned at that time
> 
> And as for how Nathan was able to drain Sarah's super........... [spoilers]  
> Also the don't throw away the line about Sarah's past 😉
> 
>  
> 
> Cya later  
> \- one sharky boi


	19. Enceladus

Austin shot up with a gasp. He looked around and saw the endless desert of snow, it wasn't until Casper came into view that he realised what happened and groaned. "Yup" said the ghost that was playing tricks on Austin's eyes, due to being the same shade as the snow. "Your suit's environmental control failed last night." Austin stood up, the snow crunching under his feet. "How are Hannah and Jake?" Casper dematerialised and said from inside his helmet "still alive, the ships fuel will last a while, but we should find a source of cabal fuel, or at least shelter." Austin nodded, the ship had crashed at an angle where the front window stayed intact, and was above the mass of snow that had accumulated around the ship. It had been almost four days since the crash happened and Casper was able to get the engine running and give them Austin's emergency rations to keep them alive. Austin walked over to the front viewport of the ship and tapped on it, a girl, probably in her teens, walked up to the glass, austin wiped off the frost on the glass to spell 'searching northwest again' after a couple seconds she wrote back 'ok' and Austin set off in the direction he indicated, keeping Casper's waypoint of the ship in the back of his mind.

Austin landed face first into the snow and cursed, he kicked the rock he tripped over away and lied there on the ground as the cold settled into his bones. His suit's heating failed hours ago and now he was even colder. He got up and continued running to work heat into his limbs. A voice came through his helmets speakers and asked "why don't you just go inside the ship?" Austin stopped and in between shaky breaths said "Casper, it's negative three hundred and thirty degrees out here. The only way to get in there without sucking all the heat out is blinking, and I do believe they like their eardrums intact due to normal air pressure of something not teleporting inside without warning." Austin felt his fingertips get warm and sighed. "Casper, you need to find a way to fix my suit. Austin's legs gave out and he fell back into the snow, but now it felt warm. This was what Austin felt was the most bearable part of dying from the cold. He took one last look at the horizon and thought he saw buildings through the constant snow.

Casper appeared and shivered. It is not wildly known that ghosts can feel the cold and heat, albeit to a lesser extent than humans. He gathered austin's light and took a scan to find the problem in Austin's environmental suit and found the heat links had exploded from strain again. He set about fixing that and looked around. He saw something through the show and smiled. He put it on Austin's HUD and sent to heating up his body so he would be good to go when he rezzed his guardian.


	20. The heat of solar

Austin blasted open a door with a well executed sword strike to the lock. The doors swung open and he swept the room with his pistol. After he cleared the room he closed the door behind him, after dying twice due to the cold and the walk over to this building, shelter was appreciated. He took a moment to scan over his surroundings as he explored. The red walls were simular to the ones he saw on the cabal carrier. There were multiple consoles and yellow barrels strewn about, but other than that the room was completely barren. Austin walked over to one of the consoles and sent out Casper to scan the device while Austin explored.austin looked at one of the barrels and found they were full of cabal ammunition. Austin knew from one of the talks he had with Casper that cabal favor explosive ammunition. He called back to Casper "find anything interesting?" Casper looked over the console at his guardian across the room "only that they sent a team to check out a noise in section D-4." Casper flew over the console at his guardian and Austin looked around. He stopped at a paint code in the wall. D-4. "Oh no" he breathed and suddenly told Casper "come on, we're leaving." Casper saw the code on the wall and disappeared. Austin hurried to the door, as he got there the lights on the door turned green and it opened revealing three cabal. One could be described as a legionary with a tank on its back, but the other two Austin had never seen before. They were smaller than Austin and more slender. They wore modified cabal armor and equipment and had one eye peeking through their helmets that only reached up to their eye before exposing the rest of their long forehead. Austin unsheathed his sword and blinked behind the known threat. He sliced into the back of the cabal's knee, bringing it down to his level. Then with a spin he stabbed the sword though the cabal's pack and out it's chest. The pack's contents burst forth and drenched Austin who blinked forward, letting the cabal fall limply to the floor. One of the smaller enemies used their packs to dash forward out of Austin's line of sight. The other lifted it's hand and pushed Austin back with a purple blast from its hand. Austin got up to one knee and shot his retreating enemy in the thruster with his pistol. His target's thruster overloaded and exploded. His next target fired shots at his position, showering him in tiny shrapnel that didn't even scratch his armor. Austin blinked forward with his sword in hand, only to be met by another purple blast to the face. Austin got up and turned his sword sideways. The shield the sword produced was just fast enough to block another incoming volley from his opponent's weapon. It ducked back into cover and Austin could hear it speaking that same raspy language with a strangely fitting higher pitched voice. Austin blinked over his opponent's cover and plunged his sword into its neck. He then dropped to one knee and used the momentum to fling the dead enemy over him and into a opposite wall. Austin sheathed his sword just as red lights decended from the ceiling and started flashing in sync to a loud beeping. Austin groaned "can we not set off an alarm for once?" Casper spoke through his helmet "you're not exactly the most subtle guardian in the world." Austin smiled and turned towards a door that was opening. Three of the smaller cabal filed through the opening and Austin could see behind them the same number of cabal holding shields and lots more cabal behind those. Casper said "psions!" So that's what they were. The newly identified psions sent a blast of their purple energy into the ground and it rocketed forward creating fire where it went. Austin saw the first cabal he killed caught on fire as the psion's blast got to it. Austin looked at his soaked armor. He had one idea only to keep from dying and to keep Casper safe. Just as the waves of fire got to him and set him ablaze he called on the void to try to snuff out the flames. The fire didn't go out, however, but combined with the void he had coated around him. The void turned into something else, yet stated the same. Some void went back into his chest, and some combined with the fire, creating a warm feeling rather than a burning one. The new combination went down into his right leg and the bit that was left dictated his movements. Austin relaxed and let the light move him how it needed. He lifted off the ground and raised his sword above his head as the warmth of the light left his foot and spiraled around him until it fused into his sword as his arm fully extended. The light raced down his arm and filled Austin's body with a sound of a sword being hit with a hammer. The light surrounded him but felt particularly intense in two places on his back. Austin brought his sword down in a sweeping motion and a Line of fire shot out and exploded on the suprised faces of the psions. Austin's feet finally touched the ground and he grinned behind his helmet. He pointed his fire-infused sword at the cabal still standing in the doorway. They let out a yell and ran through the door. Austin channelled the light under his feet like ikora taught him and lifted off the ground into the air. As more of the cabal filed into the room, he sliced the air with his sword and the newly created solar light rocketed towards it's prey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO! The next chapter is going to be with Nathan, because who dosent need a little bit of character development! So Uh, yeah, if you have any sort of suggestion or feedback for the story don't be afraid to say So!
> 
> Cya later!
> 
> -a toothy fish


	21. Hunting while hunted

Nathan landed on the ground with a thump and quickly started sprinting towards the point Athena had set. Sarah would be up soon and most likley not in the best of moods. Nathan slid around a tree and put his hand cannon' s sights up yo the broken glass of the floor he knew Sarah was at. "Ressurection energy from that floor." He heard Athena inform him, And he waited. He saw a figure walk to the window and put up their hand. They then jumped out the window and landed witg an explosion of arc energy. Nathan fired a single shot into the figure's chest. It just took one step back from the impact and looked straight at him. Nathan heard Athena say "well that did fuck all." Sarah took out a weapon and fired it at Nathan. He dove to the side and the rocket Sarah fired just missed his chest. He felt the light angle his shoulder into the ground and made him roll to his feet. Nathan turned and sprinted away, a hail of auto rifle fire following him. "Athena!" He called into his helmet. After she confirmed she was listening Nathan said "dead zone bark!" And Athena went to work. Inside her little safe space in Nathan's suit she retrieved the wanted shader and put the square into Nathan's suit. On the outside the suit pulsed and seemed to crawl across Nathan's body until his armor was colored in a forest camoflauge. Nathan then turned to his left and sprinted into the dense forest. He slid under a fallen tree and had an idea. He turned and summoned his arc staff, performing an uppercut that propelled him into the air. His staff cut the tree down and sent out a shockwave to spread dust and smoke into the air. Nathan jumped again, feeling as if he was being lifted into the treetops. He landed on a branch and waited for Sarah to come. She eventually emerged from the cloud and scanned the area with her rifle. Nathan jumped to another branch and Sarah aimed at the tree he kept from. 

This continued for a time, Nathan would move and Sarah would aim at his Last perch. So Nathan almost fell out of his latest branch when he heard Athena say "Bingo!" Nathan dropped to the ground and hid in a bush. "What?" Nathan asked Athena after making sure his external speakers were off "I found austin." Athena informed him. Nathan pushed that to the back of his mind, there would be time for questions later, right now he had to kill the bear he poked. He pulled out his submachine gun and held the trigger down. Racking Sarah's body with shots from her feet to her face. Sarah stumbled back as Nathan relocated and reloaded. Sarah then emptied a magazine into the Bush Nathan just was at. Nathan emptied another magazine inter Sarah's back and relocated as she shot at him again. He took out his sword, dubbed 'quickfang' and dashed behind her, slashing her back. She had visibly had enough as she put her gun on her back and grabbed a sword of her own. She pulled it over her shoulders, using the handle as a lever to get the giant blade over her shoulder. She held it in a two handed grip and spread her stance past her shoulders. "I know what you're thinking, you idiot." Athena warned "can you bring the ship down?" Nathan asked "yes but it will take time" Nathan asked how much and Athena awnsered "about five minutes." Nathan winced and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Then he stood up, he walked into the gap between trees that Sarah was at and unsheathed his sword. He put his sword out and behind him with one hand in front of his body as a counterweight. The only inclination Sarah noticed him was the slight movement her head made to look at him better and the way she adjusted her grip on her sword. "It dosent have to be this way." Nathan said and Sarah chuckled "so you've been watching those corny movies I see." It was Nathan's turn to chuckle. "I need to find Austin." Sarah said. "So you can kill him?" Nathan asked, stalling, Sarah was silent. "You dont have a reason for killing him, do you?" Nathan realised. Sarah turned to face him. "Avenging my only family is all the reason I need." Nathan just had enough time to react to Sarah's claymore being swung at his neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. A cheap cliffhanger. But I have some interesting ideas for the swordfight between these two and I need time to flesh them out so......yes, the next chapter will be with Austin and Casper. 
> 
> Cya later!  
> -A shark with really wet paper


	22. What are you thinking?

Casper. Ghost of austin. Defective. That's me. The one that couldn't help Austin when he was disturbed about using his nova bomb for the first time. The one that couldn't help him when he attacked a cabal carrier and saved prisoners. The one that couldn't help him when we landed on enceledus. And finally, the one that couldn't help him when he fought through endless hallways of a cabal base using a foreign part of his power. Now we are in a small room with one door with Austin sitting down with his handgun across his lap. He was sitting across from the door with his ring in his open palm. He would summon the void and make a small ball of it hover over his palm, then with ease he would make the ball of void travel in and out and through the ring then he would let go of the void and summon the solar energy he just gained. He had trouble doing the same thing and eventually he got frustrated and sat back against the wall. He looked at the ring in his hand. I ventured a shaky question. "What are you thinking?" Austin looked at me through his helmet. "Alot of things." I sank a bit where I was floating and he noticed. "What's wrong?" I never thought I'd be asked that once I had a guardian, but to hear my own guardian say that, too. I unconsciously sank even lower. Austin actually got up and walked across the room to where I was and sat down in front of me. He took off his helmet so I could see his face. "I know you don't like the cabal" he smirked at me "so we are going to stay here until you tell me what's wrong. I smiled, but only for a moment. He is my guardian, he shouldent be held down by my problems. But he is my friend like I am his, and I also know he is serious about staying here. "I'm defective" I manage weakly. He scooped me out of the air, a gesture I never understood until then. The feeling of his gentle grip making me feel like he will always be there for me and the solidness of his armor making me realise that he will protect me. "You are not Defective! You are fine." I almost laughed at the mixed feelings this guardian was instilling in me. "Ghosts are supposed to be extensions of their guardians' mind. Meaning we can hear what you are thinking and you can hear what we are thinking." I told Austin. I could tell he enjoyed that information, but his intrigue turned to concern when he figured out what I meant. "I'm defective" I repeated and this time Austin was more careful with his words. "It dosent mean you're useless, if that's what you think. It just means we have to talk more about what we are thinking." I looked up into his eyes.and he looked down into mine. His care for me ever present. "Now what are you thinking?"


	23. Stalling for time

Nathan jumped back as a claymore was swung at his throat. The titan holding the sword swung the giant blade back again at Nathan's torso, which was also evaded. Sarah took the sword in a more two handed grasp and rushed at Nathan bringing the sword in an overhead ark that slammed on the ground and exploded in solar energy. This caught Nathan off guard and made him stumble back. Sarah charged forward and slammed into Nathan, bristling with arc energy and desontegrated Nathan's body with an explosion. Athena appeared and collected Nathan's light. The massive titan looked down at the ghost that released a blast of light that revived her guardian and the neon green ghost looked up at Sarah and smiled. "Behind you." She teased. Sarah turned just as a small sword knocked her claymore aside and sliced her middle, causing her to double over. Nathan flipped over Sarah and landed over Athena with a hand on the ground, ready to dash in any direction if needed. 

Sarah squinted behind her helmet at her opponent, Her mind a jumbled mess. She wanted, needed, to get to Austin and this nuisance was in her way. She decided that Nathan was too fast for her to use her sword so, with a thought, niko dematerialised her sword from her hands and Sarah called upon the void.

Nathan was suprised that Sarah used her super this early into the battle. He held himself back from using his in return. A void shield was thrown at him and he dodged to the side using the light. Athena vanished and Nathan sheathed his sword and pulled his hand cannon out from its holster. The best way to fight a sentinal shield is to keep at range. He fired off a full magazine from his gun and they bounced harmlessly off the void shield. Nathan heard a voice talk inside his head. "Why are you not challenging her with your own light?" Nathan, still fighting, replied "because I want to wear her down first." A plan came funneling from Athena's brain to Nathan's and he smiled. "So you have been watching her?" It was more of a statement than a question. "Mhm. Now do it when she throws her shield again."

Sarah was getting frustrated by this Hunter keeping her from her goal. She threw her shield again, and Nathan ran at her! He slid under the flying shield and called his arc staff to bring the bottom in a sweeping uppercut that knocked her off balance. Nathan was sprung into the air by the excess light and he brought the staff above his head and rocketed down at sarah. She blocked the strike with her shield raised above her head but Nathan let go of the staff and slid under Sarah. He popped up behind her and framed his face with flaming knives.

Nathan threw all of the knives at Sarah that he could, and when they all exploded, he shot a full magazine of his hand cannon into the dust he threw up. All was silent until a voice in Nathan's head said "in transmat range. Locking on now."

Sarah stood up slowly. She had blocked every attack Nathan had thrown at her, and it took all her energy. When the dust settled Nathan was standing before her. "Sorry" he said "but I need to go visit a friend." And he vanished. His ship roared overhead and warped off into the sky. "Got it!" Niko said. When Sarah asked what exactly niko "got" niko replied "the coordinates of their jump. It's enceladus." Sarah smiled. "So Austin attacked a cabal carrier?" She mused. "Send a message to commander zavala." When niko stated that she was ready, Sarah said "commander Zavala, Nathan has deserted his post and has joined forces with Austin. He attacked me and escaped, but I have reason to believe they are both on enceledus. Requesting a ship and permission to eliminate both of these rogue lightbearers."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So on the off chance anyone has been following my story you'll notice that there's just one more chapter to go! But that's only for this story, lookout for more to come of these three!
> 
> (P.s I call Sarah's sword a claymore as it is of the design of the Scottish two handed sword.... The more you know!!)


	24. Little light lost

A gunship tore through the thin atmosphere of the icy moon of saturn. It circled over the crashed remains of a crashed cabal ship. The guardian ship hovered over the wreckage, a ramp at the back lowered and Nathan stepped out onto the ramp. He unholstered his hand cannon and dropped into the snow. Athena appeared beside him and flew up to the downed cabal craft. "What are you hoping to find?" She asked Nathan. Nathan put his hand on the handle to one of the side doors. "A lead" he said and heaved it open. He went inside and closed the door behind him, the pod was coated in ice. The pod pressurised, And he opened the door to the inside. The inside of the ship was also coated in a thin layer of ice. Nathan stepped into the inside of the cabal ship and met eyes with a man. He was wearing a human rebreather so he could breathe in the thin air of the icy moon. He was holding a woman, who had the same rebreather on. The eyes of the man told Nathan that he didn't want to make any sudden moves. Athena, however, had diffrent plans and flew right up to the cornered human. The man tried to swat Athena away, but missed and resorted to scooting back, putting the woman down. Athena scanned the man and woman and informed nathan "she is dead and he is not that better off." Nathan looked at the man and asked "can you tell me your name?" The man looked at him and said in a rough voice "Jake, And she is hannah." Jake looked at Hannah's body, and then back at Jake. "I am going to get you out of here, ok?" He asked Jake. Jake shook his head and said "not without her." Nathan looked at Athena and sent a thought her way. She looked back at him and he felt approval from her. "Jake" Nathan said, gently "I'll do what I can" Jake's expression softened "tell ikora I said 'hi'" Nathan told Jake. Jake's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by being teleported to Nathan's ship. Nathan heard the engines foreign up and the ship taking off into orbit. Nathan and Athena sat in silence for a couple of moments before Nathan opened the door to the surface of the moon, and the ship depressurised. Nathan went outside and Athena told him "I've found Nathan's ghost's signal it's pretty far. Nathan's sparrow transmitted in front of him and he got on, headed for Austin.

Austin was going through the structures trying to find a way outside. He ran into a few cabal patrols but nothing he couldn't handle. He eventually made his way to a balcony and looked out over the barren white landscape. "I've got something on radar" Casper said from beside austin. Austin looked at his ghost, waiting for him to say what it was. Casper looked at Austin "friendly." He said. Austin nodded and jumped off the balcony. Blinking the last few feet and rolling to soften his landing. He started walking towards the fast approaching ally.

Sarah's arcadia class ship landed at the crashed cabal ship. She walked out and checked the crashed ship. When she got to the open door she peered inside and found the body of the female hostage she heard about over the comms. She touched the body and found it coated in a thin layer of ice. Niko appeared beside her, not over her shoulder like most ghosts would. "Tell the vanguard that it looks like Austin executed a civilian by opening the door to the outside." Niko looked at her guardian, astonished. "You're sabotaging them! What happened to all the 'I feel like we are betraying him' stuff? Now that you're actually betraying him you feel nothing!" Sarah turned to face her ghost. "He betrayed us first. He killed our fireteam! How do you not want to see him face justice? Just send the message." Niko flew up to eye level with the titan "No" the titan just stared at the ghost behind her helmet. "What did you say?" Niko repeated herself and added "he has become a guardian, the very thing he wanted killed off. That's ironic justice if I've ever seen it. He is not the same person he was." Sarah angrily pushed past her ghost that was flying in the doorway and went into her ship. She made her way to the sensor array and pressed a few buttons, then she went to her personal console, booted it up, and began to write. "Since you won't do it" she told niko who she was aware was behind her "I'll do everything." She pressed send on her field report and went back to the comms. She then walked out of the ship and niko knew she had found Austin and disappeared before she got left behind. Sarah summoned her sparrow and rode off towards the ghosts of Austin and Nathan, ready for a fight.

Casper revived Austin after fixing the hand cannon bullet in his head. Austin shot up and yelled at Nathan who was putting his gun back in his holster. "What the hell was that for!" Nathan pulled out a data sheet and handed it to austin. "Read that after we get off this rock. I think I saw another ship land and that's probably Sarah. We have to get ready for her." Austin took the data sheet and put it in a pocket. "What is this?" Nathan started walking back to the structures behind austin "it's your past. It's also why Sarah is hunting you, and by extension, me." Athena appeared behind Nathan and said "shit! Guardian approaching on a sparrow! Ghost signature says it's Sarah. I'm marking her as hostile on trackers." Nathan whipped around and asked "how much time do we have before she gets here?" "Not enough" Austin was thinking until he saw the balcony on the building he came from "how good of a shot are you?" Nathan looked at Austin. Austin repeated the question and Nathan gestured to his armor and awnsered "hunter" Austin hoped that meant 'yes' and tossed Nathan his sniper rifle. "Here is a balcony on the second floor. Don't fire until you can help me out massively." Nathan nodded and sprinted to the structure. Austin just turned to face the now visible cloud of snow Sarah's sparrow was kicking up and sat on his knees and calmed his nerves.

Sarah got off her sparrow with a loud thump as her boots made impact with the ground. She looked at the warlock sitting in front of her and felt a pang of regret for her former friend. The rage at seeing him without his helmet fueled her rage as she looked at the person who killed her fireteam, her family. She summoned the void and hurled a shield at his head. He blocked it with a flaming sword which he then thrust into the ground, making a circle of solar light that radiated with heat and a massive column that sent a tendril of solar light that made a shield around Austin's body and empowered his weapon."we now have about twenty seconds to talk" Austin said, helmet appearing over his head. "So use your mouth instead of your fists for once." If looks could kill, Sarah would have won the fight then and there. She stared at Austin with rage, and austin just kept his hands behind his back, and legs shoulder width apart. "You killed the only family I've known!" She yelled at Austin. Austin kept his voice calm, and tried to not show his shaky handsfrom behind his back."That wasnt who stands before you now! I'm your friend. The one that you saved from old America, the one you would walk to training everyday with! I know So much about you just from the conversations we've had. If something I have no control over now that I can't remember it can break that, then how bad am I now?" The circle disappeared and Sarah lunged at Austin who jumped up and used the light to dodge to the side, flip around Sarah and blast her toward with his palm. Sarah fell. And rolled back to her feet. I understand killing me, but killing me permanantly?" Sarah stopped and looked at austin. "Thats what you want, right? Because killing me for four seconds dosent really fit the whole 'revenge' thing does it?." Sarah lunged at Austin again, who dodged to the side again. Sarah was prepared for it this time and punched Austin's wrist, breaking it with a loud snap. Austin yelped in pain and pushed her arm down and stuck s grenade to her side and used the light to lift himself into the air. The grenade exploded, sending Sarah stumbling back. She looked at Austin who slowly landed on the snow. Austin was watching his wrist pop and crack as Casper pulled it back into place and healed it. "You have some new abilities. How'd you hone them that fast?" Sarah asked. Austin gestured back at the buildings behind him. "An area full of big, fat, space turtles is a prime area to practice your skills." Sarah chuckled and took out her rocket launcher. "I could have helped if you didn't betray me." She shot her launcher at Austin. Who dodged it like Sarah before but this time when he cleared the rocket he saw a fist flying towards his face. The force of the punch slammed him into the ground. Sarah kicked him twice, causing him to roll on the ground. She shot him twice with her auto rifle in the chest and finally pu t the barrel of the gun yo Austin's forehead. "Any last words?" She asked Austin defiantly said "Do you ever let anything go?" Sarah's gun jumped in her hand as she pulled the trigger. Casper appeared and opened his shell to collect Austin's light. He looked up into the barrel of Sarah's gun. "Wait." He said to Sarah "What did I do? I'm a bystander here! Why do you want to kill me?" Niko appeared and flew down to Casper's level. "Its okay, just don't think about the gun. Just look at me." Casper did and said "please. You can't do anything?" Niko looked into his eyes and said gently "I can't. I've already tried countless times. Just close your eye and it'll all be fine." Casper dipped his head and hoped he could revive Austin before the shot came. He closed his eye and waited.

Nathan burst through the doors and put the rifle on the edge of the railing before he looked through the scope he heard two shots. He looked through the scope and saw Sarah pointing a gun at Austin's head. Athena appeared and Nathan asked "what's the wind speed?" Athena awnsered "no wind." Another shot was heard, and Nathan asked "distance to target?" "About 500 feet. I would recommend going for center mass." Nathan saw Casper at the end of Sarah's gun and knew a hit at center mass wouldent work. Niko went down to Casper's level and Nathan said "traveler help me" Athena sounded worried as she said "scratch that, you may want to aim for the head." Nathan took a deep breath in, and as he emptied his lungs he said "my target is a little bit smaller than that." As Nathan started to squeeze the trigger Athena turned to him and said "Wait, what?" The shot didn't miss.

Austin gasped awake to the sound of falling metal. He saw Sarah stumbling to the side and Casper falling out of the air. Austin reached out and grabbed Casper and Pulled him close to his chest as Sarah fell to her hands and knees. She shook her head as if she had been hit and suddenly her eyes widened as she, too heard the metal falling down. She yelled out as she scrambled to the shattered husk that was once her ghost "No! No! Niko!" She picked up the top of Niko's shell and looked at it. Niko had been punctured by a well placed bullet. It had critically wounded her to the point that her light exploded outwards, killing her instantly. Sarah took her helmet off and hugged the piece she was holding to her chest and rocked back and forth while saying "No. It shouldent have gone this way. I shouldent have done this. It's all my fault. I got too angry. You tried to tell me, but I didn't listen." Sarah went on and on. It took a second to realise that Sarah was crying as she talked to the fragments of her ghost. Austin sat up and looked at the buildings behind him. A red glare came from the second story balcony and austin realised what had happened. Nathan killed Niko to save him. Austin looked again at Sarah, sho was still talking, just quieter. Austin looked at Casper, who was still in his hands, and saw the ice forming on him. Austin summoned a small tendril of solar light and warmed Casper up. He looked up and Sarah was gone, along with the fragments of niko. Austin looked back at the balcony and the red glare disappeared.

Sarah sat on the floor of her ship, her sadness and grief slowly turning to anger. She got up and went to her personal terminal and sent five words to the vanguard: ghost killed in cold blood

The world shifted and folded around him until he was sitting in Nathan's ship. Nathan lied Austin's sniper rifle at his feet and said solemnly "yes, I am a good shot" Nathan went into the cockpit and austin looked down at Casper "are you okay?" Austin asked, gently. Casper quietly said "i thought i was going to die. Niko was trying to help me by telling me to look at her and not the gun. The next moment she was gone and I was flipping through the air." He nuzzled deeper into Austin's grip. "Don't ever leave me like that again." He said even quieter. Austin hugged him closer and got up and walked to the cockpit, carrying Casper and leaving his rifle behind.

**Author's Note:**

> SO!!!! This is my first work. There will be more on the way so give feedback. If you don't like it, good! Tell me what I can do better, I know I can't make everyone happy, but I may be able to make you happy. 
> 
> Cya later  
> -sharkbit


End file.
